An industry turned upside down
Julien Schmetz , senior consultant at jwc , previews the all-new extended Global Industry Performance Review ( GIPR ) and shares some exclusive key insights
jwc ’ s Global Industry Performance Review ( GIPR ), based on the structure of Jochen Witt ’ s annual presentation at the UFI Congress , is more relevant than ever given the global pandemic . The format and content have been enhanced this year and the full report will be released at the end of April . It will consist of three parts and for each a webinar will be organised after publication , allowing discussion of the report alongside presentations of key insights by jwc experts .
Next to its traditional analysis of the top 40 exhibition company financials , global and regional market sizes , and the development of the most important countries , the new GIPR will give a comprehensive overview of Covid-19 ’ s impact on the industry ’ s performance and an outlook into an uncertain future .
In a new , second section of GIPR , never-before published insights about the Chinese market will be revealed . It will provide extensive new perspectives on Chinese venues and market size , as well as insights into the structure and developments of the Chinese market .
The third section will deal with the evolution of business models in our industry , shifting away from the notion of pure hybrid events towards omnichannel models . This section gives an overview of digital transformation in our industry and Covid-19 ’ s impact , including recent developments in digital offerings and trends that reinforce the need for a strong digital strategy . We present our approach to a seamless integration of digital and physical offerings , omnichannel business models , and give specific advice to organisers on what steps need to be taken to develop such business models for different shows .
The damage of the pandemic to our industry , compared region-byregion and to other sectors Unsurprisingly , the impact of the global pandemic takes centre stage of the industry performance section . The report compares the exhibition industry ’ s performance with related sectors such as tourism and aviation , before and during the pandemic . The analysis underlines that hardly any other sector has been hit as hard as the global exhibition industry . In the US for instance , employment by convention and tradeshow organisers dropped 44 % compared to February 2020 – no other travel-related sector has seen a greater decrease .
The report includes an overview of governmental aid to the overall economy , to comparable sectors , and to the exhibition industry .
Not every country has been equally affected by the crisis , as GIPR ’ s regional analysis demonstrates . The section includes the exhibition industry ’ s performance in all major regions , complemented with additional macroeconomic and region-specific analyses . For all regions , market sizes in terms of revenue and space is shown .
In many countries , the exact date of market re-openings remains to be determined . Moreover , the structural changes triggered by the Covid-19 outbreak reinforce the uncertainty with respect to the future growth of the industry . Mega-trends such as the greatly amplified importance of digital offerings or the grim
Below : Julien Schmetz , senior consultant at jwc long-term outlook for international business travel cast doubts whether international tradeshows will ever reach their pre-pandemic volumes in terms of net rented space . The report contains global and regional industry forecasts for the coming five years , based on a set of possible scenarios .
How the 40 biggest exhibition companies performed over the last decade – and in 2020 The previous decade has been a comfortable one for the industry : The top 40 companies grew on average 5.8 % over the last decade , including acquisition effects . The growth has even accelerated in the three years before the pandemic , amounting to an average of 7.2 %.
Most exhibition companies have also hit their commercial targets : Pure-play organisers have shown healthy profit margins , with the Top 8 averaging 26 % of Adjusted-EBIT margins from 2010 to 2019 . Most venue-owning companies were profitable , albeit less than pure-play organisers , and generated high economic impacts for their local economies from in-person events .
As Figure 1 suggests , the pandemic has completely disrupted this strong performance . While the top 10 companies have grown 6.6 % over the past decade , their revenues have dropped by a staggering 67 % in 2020 , with decreases of almost 80 % for some companies .
The report has comprehensive analysis of the financial development of the top 40 on the market , including profitability and market share over a 10-year period . Revenues are also shown by segment and by industryvertical for selected companies .
The GIPR industry ranking again gives an overview of the Top 20 organisers by revenue , adjusted- EBIT and adjusted-EBIT margin . The pandemic has shaken up the ranking and for 2020 , cost-cutting measurements following the pandemic are quantified . Deep insights on the drivers of financial
18 Issue 2 2021 www . exhibitionworld . co . uk