Market of the future: steady growth in supply
By far the greater majority of trade fairs in India are of regional importance, shows with international outreach tending to be the exception. The range of exhibitions on offer covers a wide variety of sectors and is growing constantly. Although a lack of transparency and objectivity on the part of many domestic exhibition organisers makes it difficult to canvass the Indian exhibition market, India is nonetheless perceived as a market of the future.
Some 70 % of all fairs take place in New Delhi, making it the most important exhibition city on the sub-continent. The second leading trade fair city is Mumbai (Bombay). In the past three to five years the cities Bangalore, Chennai (Madras) and Hyderabad in particular have turned in powerful economic growth.
Trade fair experts expect all three of these cities to develop more strongly as exhibition locations, with tradeshow activities that have so far concentrated on New Delhi and Mumbai continuing to relocate there.
The Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai features halls with a gross area of 30,000 m2; the open-air grounds cover 20,000 m2. On the Pragati Maidan fairground in New Delhi 60,000 m2 gross are available in 17 exhibition halls, with another roughly 40,000 m2 outdoors. The Chennai Trade Center in Chennai comprises hall space of 7,000 m2 gross and an open-air site of 10,000 m2.
In Hyderabad the HITEX Exhibition Centre was opened in January 2003. Planned by German architects, the HITEX possesses modern infrastructure including visitor registration, conference rooms and a media centre. At present three halls, all air-conditioned, are available with total space of 10,500 m2. Moving forward, it is planned to add another five exhibition halls to the expo centre, which also provides 32,825 m2 outdoor space.
Calcutta, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Pune (Poona) can only offer open-air sites rigged up with temporary buildings. The technical equipment depends on the exhibition organiser in each case.
For companies seeking to expand their business activities into India, the market conditions they will find there make it extremely difficult to choose the right show for their industry and target group from among the host of different trade fairs arranged by the most disparate organisers. In India, the promotion material on fairs should not necessarily be taken as a sign of especially good quality. Equally, the information provided by Indian exhibition organisers should be viewed very discriminatingly. To canvass the Indian market, companies are therefore well advised to take part in fairs organised by international exhibition companies.
Among the best-known Indian exhibition organisers are the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), FICCI, all in New Delhi, Plastindia Foundation in Mumbai, the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (Imtma) in New Delhi, and CIDEX, a joint venture between Messe Düsseldorf and Koelnmesse International. Source: AUMA, Berlin
m+a report Nr.3 / 2005 vom 27.04.2005
m+a report vom 27. April 2005