The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) has released year-end results for the CEIR Index. After an encouraging first-half with growth near 2.4 percent and tracking to meet the 2.9 percent projection, performance in the second half of 2012 declined.
The cooling reflected in the third quarter continued into the fourth quarter with the CEIR Index for the overall exhibition industry finishing at 1.5 percent growth for the year, lagging behind the revised government gross domestic product (GDP) estimate of 2.2 percent.
“We had a positive outlook during the first and second quarters of 2012, however, the exhibition industry began to slump in the third quarter and continued through the end of the year,” said Allen Shaw, Ph.D., CEIR Economist, chief economist, Global Economic Consulting Associates, Inc. “We attribute this to the well-publicized prospect of the fiscal cliff, which substantially hurt business sentiment and willingness to incur travel expenses, and ultimately hurt the exhibition industry.”
Based on the initial projection for the year, the sectors that were expected to do well performed better than projected. Conversely, sectors with low expectations performed worse than projected. Two sectors that exceeded projections were Discretionary Consumer Services and Sporting Goods, Travel and Entertainment. Both rely on consumer confidence as does the Consumer Goods and Retail Trade sector.
Compared to the third quarter, attendance, the leading indicator, slowed from 1.3 percent to 1 percent. Similarly slowing growth was reflected in net square feet which was down slightly from 1.2 percent in the third quarter to 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Exhibitors slowed from 0.5 percent to 0.2 percent and revenues, which were adjusted for inflation, slowed from 1.6 percent to 1.3 percent.
As an objective measure of the annual performance of the exhibition industry, the CEIR Index measures year-over-year changes in four key metrics to determine overall performance: net square feet of exhibit space sold; professional attendance; number of exhibiting companies; and gross revenue. The CEIR Index provides exhibition industry performance across 14 key industry sectors, including Business Services; Consumer Goods; Discretionary Consumer Services; Education; Food; Financial, Legal and Real Estate; Government; Building, Construction, Home and Repair; Industrial/Heavy Machinery and Finished Business Inputs; Communications and Information Technology; Medical and Healthcare; Raw Materials and Science; Sporting Goods, Travel and Entertainment; and Transportation.
Predict: CEIR’s Annual Outlook Conference 2013 will be held on Sept. 12 in New York City. Predict has become the must-attend event for C-level executives, merger and acquisition firms and financial institutions to discuss and strategize on performance of the exhibition industry.
