REVIEW
Back with a bang
Brussels Furniture Fair returned to visitor and exhibitor acclaim ‘Who’d have thought at the end of the Furniture Fair 2019 that we’d have to wait two years for the next edition? Over the four days, the patience of exhibitors, retailers and us as the organiser was finally rewarded. We can now look back with relief, and above all with pride, at an exceptionally successful edition. We of course knew in advance that there would be fewer visitors. Travelling is still not easy, and many visitors remain distrustful of events. But those who did attend were wildly enthusiastic about the result,’ says Lieven Van den Heede,
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Interiors Monthly December 2021
Brussels Furniture Fair general manager. ‘No one was worrying about the fact that visitor numbers were down. No one found it a problem, in fact. The quality was there, and there was an exceptionally high number of orders. Almost all the large purchasing groups from abroad were present. We had a total of 16,171 visitors from 38 countries. This is 2,823 fewer, or 14.86% less, than in 2019.’ Some 146 UK and Irish buyers visited the show, down from 502. There were also noticeable drops in buyers from France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
‘Surprisingly enough, visitors from “other countries” increased. In this segment we saw an increase of 30%. Of course, these are chiefly visitors from the European Union, but we were also visited by a number of buyers from America, Africa and Asia. As a result, the share of overseas visitors held steady at 60.9%,’ says Van den Heede. ‘The offering at the Furniture Fair 2021 was less extensive than we are accustomed to, but still varied enough to be interesting for our international trade visitors. Of course the
