The ongoing COVID-19 situation in Europe sees Messe Frankfurt cancel the 2022 show
Messe Frankfurt announced today (5th January) that given the exponential worsening of the pandemic worldwide and the accompanying tightened travel and contact regulations, Paperworld 2022 will unfortunately not take place.
Messe Frankfurt commented: “The easing of the pandemic situation that was still hoped for in December is no longer in sight. Instead, the situation is deteriorating worldwide with an enormous, unforeseeable dynamic. This extreme deterioration due to the spread of the Omicron virus in Europe and Germany currently makes it impossible for Messe Frankfurt, as organiser of the leading international trade fairs Christmasworld, Paperworld, and Creativeworld, as well as Ambiente, to keep their dates in Frankfurt at the end of January and in mid-February 2022.”
The classification of Germany as a high-risk area with the associated travel warnings and international and intercontinental travel restrictions in countries such as India, Japan, and the United States and the corresponding quarantine obligations also impacted the decision.
These same issues also impact most exhibiting and visiting companies at Paperworld who are reacting to this overall situation with travel and trade fair attendance bans for reasons of duty of care towards their employees to protect them from health risks. The global willingness to travel is dropping enormously at the moment.
Detlef Braun, Member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt, said, “This decision was anything but easy for us. However, in agreement with large parts of the industries represented at the fairs, it is now our responsibility to take this difficult step. Our thanks therefore go to all our partners from the consumer-goods sector, be they exhibitors, visitors, associations or the media, who worked with us on the trade fairs until the very end and, like us, put their heart and soul, energy and passion into staging them.”
Information on the planning of the Frankfurt consumer goods fairs for 2023 will be announced at the beginning of February 2022.
