UFI updates COVID-19 damage assessment

Paris, 20th July: Earlier this week, UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, released an updated COVID-19 damage assessment for the global exhibitions and trade show industry, covering the full year of 2020.

According to its recently released UFI Global Exhibition Barometer, industry revenues in the first half of 2020 dropped by two thirds compared to the same period last year. UFI also provided an expectation of revenues for the full year of 2020. According to survey organisers, they expect to generate revenues far below 2019 levels. Organisers in Europe and North America expect revenues to be 44% of 2019, while the figure in Asia was 39% and Central and South America were both lower at 33%. The Middle East & Africa was 31%. BSG notes that even these forecasts now seem optimistic given that for an increasing number of geographic markets, the rest of 2020 could be a complete write-off.