Meet only Original Designs, the annual international trade fair for producers of upholstery, window and wall coverings, this year welcomed 7,000 visitors. This is a slight drop compared to last year, but the majority of the exhibitors agreed the quality of these people was considerably higher than in 2011. Most of them were absolutely willing to do business.
Just like last year, the foreign visitor’s top three was made up by Germany , France and the United Kingdom. MoOD 2012 also saw a considerable rise in the number of Eastern Europeans, as more and more Russians find their way to the fair. Now, the Scandinavian countries appear to experience economic growth again. This resulted in many Scandinavians making a trip to Brussels to visit MoOD.
The small drop in attendance can mostly be attributed to the countries in Southern Europe. Judging from MoOD’s attendance numbers, a huge difference between the economies of Northern and Southern Europe shows.
When looking at the global attendance figures, Asia turns out to be the second most frequent continent of origin, thanks to the surge in MoOD visitors from Far Eastern countries like China, Japan and Hong Kong (in that order of importance). The Middle East, on the other hand, is suffering from an insecure political climate, which had its effect on the number of visitors from this region. The attendance from the United States remained about the same compared to last year. In this respect, the North African countries (among which Morocco and Tunisia) are clearly among the ‘growers’.
