German companies are well represented among the leading exhibition businesses worldwide. Based on 2016 revenues, four companies from Germany rank among the top 10. This is a result of a study carried out in August 2017 by the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA). It includes exhibition organisers, exhibition hall operators, and companies that work in both sectors.

After the British organisers Reed Exhibitions (1,277.4 million euros) and UBM (830.6 million euros), Messe Frankfurt ranked third with sales of 647.0 million euros, followed by the French company GL Events with sales of 452.6 million euros.

Three additional German businesses ranked 5th, 6th and 10th: Messe Düsseldorf with 442.8 million euros, Messe München with 428.1 million euros and Messe Berlin with 309.4 million euros in its exhibition business areas.

Of the 33 exhibition companies with revenues of more than 100 million euros, nine are located in Germany and six in the United Kingdom.

European companies in general dominate this ranking: Only five of these 33 companies are based outside Europe: Emerald Expositions (USA), Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Coex (Korea), Tokyo Big Sight and SNIEC Shanghai.

Total revenues of German companies reached 3.9 billion euros in 2016. Because of fewer events in 2017 for periodicity reasons, AUMA anticipates sales this year of approximately 3.5 billion euros.