Interzoo provides superlatives

14 exhibition halls, a total area of over 140 000 m2, around 2 150 exhibitors from 68 countries, an internationality of 85 per cent among the exhibitors and over 74 per cent among the visitors: each of these figures alone represented a small record. And the trade fair as a whole received plenty of praise from exhibitors and visitors wherever you looked and whenever you asked around. Nevertheless, the organiser WZF would have liked to set another record for the number of trade visitors. In the run-up to the trade fair, 40 000 were expected, but in the end there were “only” around 37 000, albeit from 140 countries, which was another record! How should the number of visitors to this year’s trade fair be assessed - is the attendance a good or bad result? On a positive note, it was 32 per cent more than at Interzoo 2022, which was still in pandemic mode with virtually no Asian exhibitors or visitors and significantly fewer guests from America.  

Viewed more objectively, although the number of visitors at this year’s show displays a noticeable upward trend, it is still below the 39 000 mark that was reached or exceeded at the pre-pandemic trade fairs in 2018 and 2016 as well as below the 40 000 mark set by the organisers themselves. But what are numbers?! If you go to a trade fair, you have to be pragmatic and not dogmatic. “For us, it’s the quality of the visitors and not the quantity that counts,” was the prevailing opinion among exhibitors. And there was broad agreement that there was nothing to criticise in terms of quality.  

Gordon Bonnet, managing director of trade fair organiser WZF and conceptual sponsor ZZF, also focused on this aspect when assessing the trade fair: “For many exhibitors and trade visitors, Interzoo is the highlight of the financial year. We are therefore delighted to have met and often exceeded the high expectations of exhibitors.” In the final announcement on 10 May, Bonnet also emphasised the continued extraordinarily high level of internationality, which underlines Interzoo’s status as the world’s number one industry platform. ZZF president Norbert Holthenrich echoed this sentiment: “Interzoo 2024 was an enormous success for market participants in the international pet supplies industry. As was confirmed to us in numerous conversations, personal contact at the trade fair is the starting point for many long-standing business relationships and partnerships.”

Not mentioned in all these statements, however, was another aspect that deserves to be flagged: the trade fair organiser apparently succeeded in keeping the number of visitors fairly constant over the four days. We recall that two years ago, Interzoo was particularly well attended on the first two days of the fair, the Thursday of the fair showed a downward trend, and on the Friday the exhibitors largely kept to themselves. It resulted in some exhibitors immediately calling for Interzoo to be reduced from four to three days in future.

The WZF did not shy away from the hard work and came up with a lot of inspiring ideas. And it reaped success. For example, the Fresh Ideas Area with bar and networking lounge, which was significantly larger than in 2022, was very popular on all days of the trade fair. The Trixie party outside the exhibition centre, which was scheduled for the Friday, probably also ensured that there was still a lot going on in the Interzoo halls on the last day of the fair. Almost all exhibitors were happy about this. Many were also happy that there were no more peak days like two years ago, when stand personnel had great difficulty in welcoming and advising the number of visitors properly.