Middle East & Africa
Consumer goods, energy and real estate & construction represent the leading exhibition sectors within the MEA region
Above: John McGovern
Source: jwc analysis, jwc research, jwc estimates. * Numbers as publicly available at the time of research March 2025 © 2025 jwc gmbh www. jwc. eu. com April 2025
East, and the region now accounts for over half of all venues and total exhibition capacity withiin the MEA region. Nine out of ten of the wider region’ s largest exhibition venues are located in the Middle East.
The MEA region is also strong in the energy & environment, tourism and security & defence sectors, all outperforming their industry counterparts for net rented space and visitor development rate, according to jwc’ s analysis of Eurofairs statistics.
Consumer goods, real estate and construction, and printing and packaging add to the list of best performing sectors in the MEA region for events.
Jochen Witt indicated that the Middle East now has the highest price levels per square metre – above North America, Asia and Europe.
Of course, the region has significant variations within it, with the GCC markets characterised by high GDP per capita, while Africa remains in the developing phase and the Middle
East contributes around two-thirds of the MEA region’ s overall GDP.
And the United Arab Emirates( UAE) accounts for approximately a quarter of the MEA region’ s exhibition activity. It is followed by Saudi Arabia with about half again of the UAE’ s total.
In the MEA region, exports are predominantly driven by petroleum and hig-value resources such as gold, which all highlights rhe region’ s commodity-driven nature. To address this and support economic diversification, MICE and tourism initiatives now figure prominently in most MEA government visions.
Organiser profile International organisers are responsible for over half( 54 %) of events in the 2024 / 2025 cycle in the GCC region, according to jwc’ s research, and an even higher percentage in Africa( 64 %).
The leading international organiser in MEA is dmg events, with 52, followed by Informa( 39), Dubai World Trade Centre( 22), Messe Frankfurt and Terrapinn( both 10). RX is on seven, Italian Exhibition Group up to six and Messe Dusseldorf on two.
Outlook Looking to the future, jwc sees an increased awareness for ROI by exhibitors in the region and possibly a slight decrease in visitor numbers, albeit a tighter focus on visitor quality.
Several consumer goods shows will come under presure, jwc predicts, with some likely to convert to sourcing platforms.
The event format will continue to evolve with more 1:1 meetings and hosted buyer events.
Content and specialisation will be key to success and AI, while not a game changer, is predicted to enhance USP and reduce costs.
Data strategies will be essential and the omnichannel model will be supreme.
Challenges include attracting and retaining talent, while the Co2 footprint of an event will become a currency. EW www. exhibitionworld. co. uk Issue 3 2025 29