Messe Frankfurt Middle East reports record attendance as trade visitors prioritise interaction

Messe Frankfurt Middle East reports record attendance as trade visitors prioritise interaction

- CEO Simon Mellor says growth illustrates value of business-to-business events

- Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism says events drive international visitation and contribute to Dubai Economic Agenda D33 goals

Dubai, UAE: Messe Frankfurt Middle East (MFME) has reported that trade visitor attendance to its past year’s events – Beautyworld Middle East, Paperworld Middle East, Gifts & Lifestyle Middle East, Automechanika Dubai and Hardware & Tools Middle East in the final quarter of 2022, as well as Intersec and Light Middle East | Intelligent Building Middle East earlier this month, attracted an average of 22% more trade visitors than previous attendance figure records. What’s more, the now surpassed previous records refer to figures before the COVID19 pandemic impacted international travel and visitor attendance, even though the number of exhibitors is yet to return to pre-pandemic highs.

A key driver for this visitor growth is the increase in the international appeal of the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) based exhibitions. Simon Mellor, CEO of MFME, noted that there had been a significant increase in trade professionals travelling from abroad to attend events, stating, “We have noticed a significant increase in international attendees across the spectrum of all of our events accounting for well