By Heinz Kuhlmann T he plan is that Tokyo Big Sight the leading Japanese trade fair centre is to be the Olympics media centre which would put it out of action for trade fairs for almost two years Makuhari Messe is also supposed to be used during the Olympics That presents the Japanese trade fair industry with a big problem says Tadao Ishizumi president of Reed Exhibitions Japan and chairman of the Japan Exhibitions Association The consequences would be dramatic considerable losses of almost 2 billion euros according to one study would be incurred by over 1 000 service providers And that s leaving out the impact on trade fair organisers and venue operators 78 000 companies most of them small or medium sized businesses would be unable to exhibit and thus have to accept a huge loss of poten tial income Growth in many industries would stagnate Japan s image and competi tiveness would suffer particularly in the Asian trade fair industry Some exhibitors would switch to other venues permanently We have been talking about this to the members of our association trade fair serv ice companies and exhibitors since the be ginning of the year reports Tadao Ishizumi A survey was initiated with an appeal for support And with considerable success by January 2017 there had been 80 000 positive responses and in the meantime there have been a total of 150 000 On the strength of that a petition was sent to Yuriko Koike the governor of Tokyo Unfortunately we haven t had a reply yet laments Ishizumi It seems like the decision has already been taken he fears We are continuing our ef forts with other activities An official state ment was produced in the name of the key players and published in the Japanese press in September a full page advertisement in the country s largest financial newspaper Ni 88 TradeFairs Internation al 3 2017 INTERNATIONAL JAPAN Mega event casting a shadow The Olympic Games are taking place in Tokyo in 2020 Many ex isting buildings will be used for it as well as new ones That could have a dramatic impact on the trade fair scene The long road to the B2B trade fair Heinz Kuhlmann talks to Tadao Ishizumi president of Reed Exhi bitions Japan and chairman of the Japan Exhibitions Associa tion about the Japanese trade fair industry Heinz Kuhlmann Many foreign compa nies do more business in other Asian countries than in Japan How do you see that Tadao Ishizumi I agree and I ask myself why exhibitors and buyers from abroad seem reluctant to take part in Japanese trade fairs After all Japan is a leading economy with much to offer Kuhlmann The main reasons as far as non Asian companies are concerned are not the high costs but the lack of a B2B orientation the presence of trade fair visitors who seem to just collect brochures and photograph hostesses the difficulty of following up and the language problem Ishizumi Yes those are indeed the main obstacles and a lot needs to be done here Kuhlmann Thanks to the continual ef forts of Reed often in the face of resist ance from associations and companies change is happening Ishizumi Yes in the last decade there has been remarkable progress Many Japanese trade fairs do have a greater B2B focus al though the public does still gain entry to consumer goods fairs Kuhlmann What do Japanese compa nies say Ishizumi Many Japanese companies are now of the opinion that the focus should be on business rather on PR or entertain ment Event Expo Tokyo in der Makuhari Messe Event Expo Tokyo at Makuhari Messe Ph ot o R ee d Ex hi bi tio ns J ap an

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