AUMA Exhibitor Outlook 2026/2027: Rising Costs Are the Biggest Challenge for German Exhibitors

AUMA surveys more than 400 exhibiting companies from Germany on a regular basis, and its Exhibitor Outlook 2026/2027 finds rising costs to be the dominant concern: 64.1% of respondents name generally increasing costs as their biggest challenge and 54.5% report growing budget pressure. Even so, 97.5% still regard trade fairs as an indispensable platform for exchange, innovation and business development; the historic high for that indicator was once 99%. Participation intensity slips slightly, with the average number of trade fair appearances across all respondents falling from 5.4 to a projected 5.1 for 2026/2027. Trade fair appearances remain among the three most highly rated instruments in the marketing mix for 77.5% of companies. By sector, 84.3% of manufacturers rate them important or very important, ahead of trading companies on 72.9% and service providers on 66.3%. On budgets, four in ten exhibitors plan to spend more, almost as many will keep spending flat and one fifth plan to cut back.