Positive Investment Climate at Drupa 2008: Purchase Deals Worth More Than Euro 10 Billion

Around 391,000 visitors from 138 countries and 3,000 journalists from 84 countries traveled to Düsseldorf, Germany to gather information on innovations, developments and new fields of business. Accounting for 59% of the visitor total, international visitor participation increased by 4% compared to drupa 2004. “This means drupa has further developed its global market significance and its international status. Given the difficult economic climate this is a remarkable success. Fortunately, we were able to increase the proportion of overseas visitors to 43%”, explained Werner M. Dornscheidt, President & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf. Particularly contributing to this growth were Asian and Latin American trade visitors with 7% coming from South and Central America and 15% from Asia (2004: 13.6%). At a surprising level of 6%, the proportion of North American visitors remained constant. “We had anticipated slight decreases not only because of the high level of the Euro,” commented Werner M. Dornscheidt. “But these figures also clearly show: drupa is top worldwide and nothing moves in the print and media industry without it!”