Buyers and traders from all over the world came to Nuremberg again for the biggest fair for toys, hobbies and leisure from 7-12 Feb, 2008. The toy industry’s leading fair maintained last year’s record result at a high level with nearly 80,000 visitors, and the Way to School and Learning by Playing specials and the fair’s innovation programme provided particularly valuable guidance on setting the course of the national and international toy traders.

The internationalization concept adopted in the past years is consistently pursued by the International Toy Fair and has increased the share of international visitors from 118 nations to 53 per cent. The decline in the number of German visitors caused by market factors was compensated for by the growing number of international visitors. The rising number of visitors from the East European countries with growth rates of 10 to over 20 per cent is particularly noticeable, but more buyers also swarmed to Nuremberg from South America, with 38 per cent more than the previous year from Brazil alone. The quality of the fair visitors also improved. The share of decision-makers rose to 76.5 per cent. With regard to visiting the fair again in 2009, 90.3 per cent of the visitors have already said they will come again next year.

For the 2,676 exhibitors, who were thoroughly satisfied with the fair, the International Toy Fair remains the hub of all their marketing and sales activities, as confirmed by 90.5 per cent of the companies. This outstanding importance and the positive overall impression of the fair, which was stated as very good or good by 79.9 per cent of the exhibitors, produced a record figure for their intention to exhibit again. 91 per cent of the exhibitors said they will be there in 2009 when the International Toy Fair celebrates its 60th anniversary. Preparing the ground for new business connections remains the most important function of exhibiting at the fair.

The Way to School special, which prepared a supplementary assortment of starting school articles for the toy trade, was a fantastic success from the word go. This special theme also attracted more stationery traders to Nuremberg, who wanted to supplement their assortment with toy products for starting school.

The basic theme of the International Toy Fair 2008 exactly matched the interests of the buyers and traders, who visited the special show in large numbers and gathered advice on targeted assortments and the attractive presentation of educational toys at the Point of Sale. Specialists with many years of experience in the toy trade were available for this purpose. The Branch Forum also developed into the information hub for the industry and was attended by 30 per cent more fair visitors than last year.  The forum also provided detailed information about learning by playing. For example, the study commissioned by Spielwarenmesse eG and conducted by the market research institute GEFAS was presented. The study analysed new findings on parents’ attitudes and the traders’ expertise and wishes.

The hunt for new products is still top priority for fair visitors. The extended concept of the ToyAward, which the international jury presented in eight categories, attracted a correspondingly positive response. The winners were presented to an audience of approx. 1,000 in the ceremonious setting of the opening gala and profited from considerably increased attention during the subsequent fair. The InnovationCenter, in which many other new products on the market were presented as well as the ToyInnovations, received a host of extra visitors in 2008. In addition, the search for new exhibitors took every second suitably informed trader and buyer to the NewExhibitorCenter on the Nuremberg fair site.

Especially the international manufacturers and trade structures know that licenses are attracting more attention. The LicenseCenter with its presentation of the world’s most promising license themes for 2008 therefore did justice to this growing response. The visitors rewarded this with an excellent rating for the licensed products on display.

The 60th International Toy Fair 2009 with its special anniversary programme takes place in Nuremberg from 05 – 10 Feb, 2009.