The trade fair sector is still being hit hard by the second wave of the Covid19 Pandemic, but the industry is confident that 2021 will bring about a new beginning. EsteticaExport has put some questions on the subject to Nicolò Costanzo, Managing Director of Italian Fair Service.
Please introduce your company.
“Italian Fair Service is an agency office of International exhibitions.
In 2000, we began organizing groups of Italian companies to potentially participate at international trade fairs.Our long experience enables us to give detailed information about markets, fairs and potential buyers situated in the countries where fairs are taking place.In the beauty industry as a whole, we work with more than 25 trade fairs around the world”.
How are you coping with this terrible year we’ve been living through?
“It is well known that fairs have been cancelled all over the world except for China, where they have already started opening some events last summer. For example, one of the fairs we represent: CBE Shanghai, has a quite successful event in July, although only local people could attend. In other sectors, we’ve also had a few fairs taking pace in other parts of the world. As we also represent some textile fairs we participate in quite a few that recently opened in the Lombardy and Piedmont regions of Italy. Generally speaking, the aisles were quite empty as many visitors could not reach the venue, also as a consequence of ongoing travel restrictions.”
And some people are still afraid to attend trade fairs…
“I don’t think people are afraid, I believe the vast majority of people want to go back to normal and be able to attend physical fairs and meet other people face-to-face, but there are some real obstacles that just cannot be overcome. The attendance at European fairs is now limited mostly to businessman traveling within European countries. Unfortunately, visitors from outside the EU are absent, a fact that weighs a lot on the balance of the events”.
You have a rich portfolio of fairs all over the world. In your opinion which are the most interesting upcoming markets in the beauty industry?
“In our catalogue you can find some “traditional” fairs which we have worked on for many years, like Baltic Beauty in Riga (Latvia), but also some new entries for 2021 like Morocco (Casablanca) which we believe is one of the most interesting markets on the world fair stage. Good chance especially for cosmetics, because in Marocco the beauty manufacturing industry is almost non-existent, so they have to import everything. Morocco is easy to approach, it’s not far from Europe and has a stable government.
Then there’s Professional Beauty Johannesburg (South Africa) whom we have worked with for a few years and are proving to be an important meeting point in that area. In Central Asia, another area developing fast in recent years, Kazakistan is a most interesting country. It’s a large country with a vibrant population which wants to have access to all the resources modern life has to offer. In the Middle East I would like to mention Beauty Istanbul, a fair that had a great success in its first edition in 2019. Thanks to the ability of the Managing Director, Mr Mahmut Er, an incredible organizer with a long and sound experience in the expo world.”
In your presentation you talk about financial help for companies participating in international fairs. Can you explain better?
“We help customers to take advantage of all possible aid in terms of the financial support that governments and organizations have put in place. There is also a program run by Simest, that offers financial support related to participation at exhibitions. That means not only the cost of the booth, but also the flight costs, hotels and shipping. 50% of this amount will be a non-repayable investment and 50% as a loan repayable over 4 years.”
