NEWS

Potential change of date for Nuremberg Toy Fair in 2022

Published on: 26th October 2020

Nuremberg Toy Fair may run from Tuesday – Saturday for the first time.

Toy World understands that the organizer of the Nuremberg Toy Fair is seriously considering changing the date configuration for the 2022 event. While the Spielwarenmesse will occupy its traditional week in the calendar, the show could replace its current Wednesday – Sunday format, shifting the show a day forward so that it would run from Tuesday 1st February to Saturday 5th February in 2022. A final decision will be taken on 12th November, after a meeting with the supervisory board.

With London Toy Fair taking place the preceding week (25th-27th January), there would be one less day between the two shows, but this would still give exhibitors and visitors sufficient time between the events to avoid any inconvenience.

The show organiser cites “greater demand from the toy industry” for the potential changes. It is anticipated that the decision would be warmly received by the vast majority of exhibitors and visitors, especially those from the UK and other international markets.

While it was commonplace a few decades ago, few modern trade shows run over a weekend (especially both days of the weekend). For many years, the Nuremberg Toy Fair finished on a Monday, but that apparent anomaly was removed several years back. At the time, the rationale behind moving the show forward by a day was that the new configuration was more appealing to international visitors – the assumption has long been that the last few days of the event were predominantly aimed at the domestic German market, with many international visitors leaving the show on the Friday evening.

This latest move appears to be an extension of this strategy: an extra week day opens up several options for international visitors, assuming they prefer to avoid working over the weekend. Some visitors could now opt to spend four days at the show, rather than three. For those who are happy with a three day trip, they could choose to go Tuesday to Thursday, or Wednesday to Friday. For those visitors planning a two day trip, the flexibility is even greater. Therefore, not only would the change of date offer more options for visitors, it would also potentially smooths out demand for both flights and hotel accommodation across the peak days, two ongoing challenges for the Nuremberg show.

An additional bonus for UK exhibitors and visitors is that those people who want or need to attend Spring Fair would now have an additional day between the two events, allowing more flexibility over travel plans and preparation.

Toy World also understands that there will be a further announcement on the postponed 2021 event early next week, with well-placed sources suggesting that the revised date is likely to fall in July.

 

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