f.re.e reports back with visitor record

Five trade fair days, enthusiastic exhibitors and record attendance—f.re.e delivers an impressive report: Approximately 900 exhibitors from over 50 countries and more than 160,000 visitors came to Bavaria’s biggest fair for travel and leisure at the Munich exhibition grounds from 22 to 26 February, 2023. f.re.e therefore hit a new record here.

Messe München’s Co-CEOs, Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer and Stefan Rummel are impressed: “After our specialist fairs already made a powerful return last year, the incredibly high visitor numbers and exhibitor satisfaction at f.re.e show how general public fairs are still high in demand and needed.” An appraisal also shared by Munich’s Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter after his visit to f.re.e: “I am so happy that after the long Covid-19 interlude the f.re.e travel and leisure fair is now happening again in Munich. One reason being because f.re.e again offers so many interesting suggestions and ideas for vacationing, travel and leisure activities. And let’s not forget that it also stimulates the trade fair business in Munich, so the city is of course only too grateful for both.”

Quality of visitors impresses exhibitors

Both the high number of visitors and in particular their quality impressed the exhibitors. Hermann Braun, Managing Director at Braun Reisemobile: “We’re here at the fair for the first time and are extremely happy with the quality of the visitors. We’re definitely looking forward to the next one.” Marie Gérard, Owner of Wohnwagen Gérard, emphasizes: “Once again it was a great trade fair, great talks and super interested people.” And Karl Schlössl, Manager at La Marca Mobility, adds: “f.re.e was an absolute success for us. We would like to thank our numerous buyers at the fair, and the many, many new interested parties. Of course we are very much looking forward to being here again in 2024, even bigger and even more beautiful.” f.re.e was also a success for Campwerk, as Sales Manager Mike Labinschus states: “We are very positively surprised that even just the first fair days during the week were visited by so many people. We had so many interesting, wonderful talks and also made some sales.” Jürgen Jung, Managing Director at Watersport Europa, sums up the atmosphere: “f.re.e is a superb trade fair for us. We’re certainly coming back!”

Feedback that f.re.e Exhibition Director Jessica Stuber loves to hear: “We’re really happy and thrilled with the lively encouragement our exhibitors have received. So many of our customers have already told us they will definitely be here for f.re.e 2024.”

Partner country Croatia—a visitor magnet

An equally good summary was given by the partner country of f.re.e, Croatia, which was a real visitor magnet, as Kristjan Staničić, Director of the Croatian National Tourist Board and Croatia partner country representative explains: “I am pleased with the overall presentation of the Croatian tourism offering to the many partners and visitors in Bavaria, which have shown a great interest in vacationing in our country. Presenting Croatia at this year’s fair was especially important, with feedback from both our Bavarian partners and friends being optimistic and based on current data we can expect an exceptionally good tourism year.”

Travel industry extremely happy

Other countries and regions also report an extremely positive result. Franz Reil, Management, Tourismus Oberbayern-München e.V., Tourismusverband Allgäu/Bayerisch-Schwaben e.V., says: “For us f.re.e is an important date in the trade fair calendar. We are especially happy with the visitor numbers and demand, which remains high for nature and active vacations in the Allgäu and Upper Bavaria regions in particular.” Franziska Zander, Specialist Live Communication at AIDA Cruises is also just as happy: “The visitors to our fair stand were really interested and many of them already had specific travel plans. The atmosphere was really good—after such a long time everyone is looking forward to enjoying advice and consultation in person again.” And Holger Gerlach, Regional Sales Manager South at Condor Airlines confirms: “After being away for so long it was really important again to be able to show our product to the end customers. They were all very interested, very curious, and had so many questions about our product. The visitor numbers were also superb as well, with customers visiting our stand continuously.”

f.re.e—a leading leisure fair

But f.re.e 2023 was not only able to score in the travel sector, it also plays at the top in the leisure sector. Peter Penzkofer, Branch Manager at Multicycle, says: “f.re.e is one of the leading trade fairs in the leisure activities area, and with its own bike hall and its dates it is the perfect platform to promote bike products.” For KTM Fahrrad, “f.re.e is a fixed part of the event calendar and provides the best opportunity to present our product highlights to end customers as the season begins,” explains Matthias Grick, Operative Marketing Manager at KTM Fahrrad. And Felix Mäncher, Assistant Manager and Events at the Munich Section of the German Alpine Club, stresses: “For us as the Munich and mountaineering sections of the German Alpine Club, f.re.e offers an excellent opportunity to present ourselves to leisure-interested visitors.”

IMOT parallel with f.re.e—a successful premiere

A further highlight was IMOT, held in parallel with f.re.e. A successful combination, as Petra Zahradka, Managing Director of IMOT, confirms: “The premiere of the IMOT international motorbike exhibition parallel with f.re.e worked perfectly. The interplay of the travel, leisure and motorbike themes clearly impressed the visitors. And our exhibitors are also extremely happy—both regulars and many new contacts, who utilized the short path from f.re.e to IMOT, came to Riem to get a taste of that motorbike air. The change from the MOC in Freimann to f.re.e in Riem certainly was the right move for IMOT.”

The next f.re.e takes place February 14 to 18, 2024.

You will find photos for f.re.e 2023 online.