Aquanale Coming to Cologne

Aquanale, the International Trade Fair for Sauna, Pool, Ambience, and FSB, the International Exhibition for Open Spaces, Sports and Swimming Facilities, will take place this year at the Koelnmesse exhibition center in Cologne November 7 to 10.

Based on early indications, show organizers are expecting a similarly high level of interest in 2017 to that seen in Aquanale 2015, which drew 288 exhibitors from 30 countries (share of international exhibitors: 51 percent) and around 26,700 trade visitors from 117 countries.

"According to a representative survey, about 85 percent of the exhibitors at Aquanale 2015 are planning to participate in the 2017 event," says Katharina C. Hamma, chief operating officer of Koelnmesse. "That gives us a real boost for the preparations."

Application forms will be available in August.

 After the co-location of the swimming pool sectors from Aquanale and FSB, successfully undertaken in recent years, we will continue to build on the synergies in the private and public swimming pool sectors — with new partnerships and dedicated events, in particular for operators of public swimming pools", says Bettina Frias, Project Manager at Koelnmesse, explaining the strategic developments underway for Aquanale 2017. "It is our aim, in close cooperation with our partners, to establish a comprehensive, international networking and business platform in Cologne."

Testing a product on the showroom floorIn the coming months, a sales and marketing focus will be on further internationalization of the event, directed above all towards the swimming pool markets of the USA, Middle East, Northern and Eastern Europe, which grew by 12.5 percent at the last Aquanale in 2015. The trade fair team has reacted to the consistent overall growth in exhibitor numbers and demand for stand areas by dedicating all of Hall 6 to the event and also extending the swimming pool-related themes into the neighboring Hall 7, making for a total of over 32,000 square meters of exhibition space.



According to an independent exhibitor and visitor survey after Aquanale 2015, 88 percent of show visitors were involved in the purchasing and procurement decisions of their companies. 92.5 percent of these visitors said that the visit to the fair was worthwhile or very worthwhile, and 97.3 percent felt highly or very highly satisfied in terms of the achievement of the aims that they had set for their visit to the fair, such as finding out about new products and ideas, the market, placing or preparing to place orders, networking or continuing training.