• Yet bigger and more international
• Around 8 million Euros turnover
• PerlenExpo’s successful premiere

Last Sunday the CREATIVA (17th – 21st March 2010) came to its successful conclusion, breaking new records with regard to exhibitor numbers, rented floor space and also international participation. And so the CREATIVA was able to further underline its position as Europe’s number one exhibition for creative design. “Managing to set new records like these in a time of economic crisis, which of course also leaves its mark on manufacturers and retailers in the craft trade, is quite a remarkable achievement“, according to Stefan Baumann, Managing Director of the Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund GmbH. The CREATIVA provided a source of satisfied exhibitors and sound turnover figures.

501 commercial and non-commercial exhibitors from 13 countries took advantage of the CREATIVA. Here they showed their range of products, materials and techniques, all centring around creative design and crafts over an area of rented space covering some 9,572 square metres (2009: 8,892). The amount of foreign involvement hit a record level of 14 percent (2009: 12 percent).

The level of turnover at the CREATIVA 2010 reached altogether around 8 million Euros. 95.4 percent of visitors made purchases or orders at the exhibition itself, on average for 106 Euros. This was the result of a visitor survey carried out by an independent exhibition market research institution.

One of the main themes this year was paper. Individual artists and craft clubs demonstrated through varied contributions that this material is not merely a print medium. Guest country Korea for example presented in its “Hanji Paper Road“ display remarkable paper exhibits made from hanji, a substance from the rind of the mulberry tree which stretches back thousands of years. “We established contact here with a very open and interested audience and the visiting school classes had lots of questions to ask about the exhibits. The visitors were particularly fascinated by the fact that all the exhibits were indeed made out of paper“, was the comment made by Gudrun Angelis from the Women’s Museum in Bonn, curator for the guest country Korea. “There were even those who wanted to buy the exhibits there and then, and weren’t perturbed by the steep prices“, Angelis went on to say.

The CREATIVA is not just a stomping ground for those with creative talent but indeed one reserved for the ladies, with 92.9 percent of visitors of the female sex. Europe’s biggest exhibition for creative design attracted ladies not only from all corners of Germany to Dortmund but also from the neighbouring states. 27.7 percent of the visitors travelled between 50 and 100 kilometres, a further 29.7 percent travelled between 100 and 300 kilometres and 6.5 percent more than 300 kilometres. Alongside visitors from Germany guests were also recorded from the Benelux countries, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

Not only was it possible to match the great number of visitors of the previous year, but to even top it. Altogether around 76,500 visitors (2009: 74,806) came to the Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund to find out about new products and ideas on the creative front, to experience new techniques and to make purchases for leisure time and occupational activities.

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Please find below the detailed interim final report as PDF for download.