Start of the season

Still up to date? The Graz trade fair put to the test

The legendary Graz trade fair once and now: from April 27 to May 1, thousands will once again storm the event grounds, but the splendor of former times is gone. There is an urgent need to invest in the infrastructure.(Bild: MCG/Maltseva)

From Saturday, the spring trade fair will once again attract thousands to Graz. But is the event still up to date?

Many Murstadt residents associate the Graz trade fair with the HiFi Hall, the Tscheppe Festival and the Messeschlössl. All that is long gone. They are memories of a time when a visit to the major international event was still a fixed date in the annual calendar that people looked forward to for weeks.

Times have changed! The best example: the HiFi Hall, once one of the major attractions where new consumer electronics products were presented year after year, has become a thing of the past.

Even though visitor and exhibitor numbers have been declining for some time now, the Graz trade fair is still an economic factor in the provincial capital. It generates added value of around 150 million euros a year - from the hotel industry to cab drivers.

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

Over the last two decades, the city has invested a lot of money in modernizing the trade fair infrastructure: The Stadthalle (with space for thousands of visitors) was built, exhibition hall A was rebuilt and open-air arena B (a listed wooden hall) was renovated.

Numerous investments in infrastructure
Parts of the site were sold to finance - at least in part - these major investments: one of these plots is now home to the Messequartier, a large housing estate. The former trade fair parking lot in Fröhlichgasse is also currently being developed; a new city quarter with a large underground parking garage is also being built there, which will be connected to the trade fair center underground.

The mayor finally needs to make a clear commitment to the Graz trade fair. In order to be competitive, there will be no getting around further investment.

Kurt Hohensinner, ÖVP-Stadtobmann

The final piece of the puzzle in the reorganization should be the new construction of Hall C. The cost: around 60 million euros. The plans were pushed ahead under the former mayor Siegfried Nagl (ÖVP), but since Elke Kahr has been mayor, things have come to a standstill. This is now even causing frowns among the coalition's nominated representatives on the trade fair supervisory board.

Why is the new hall needed? The old building is dilapidated, but renovation makes no sense because it no longer meets the structural requirements of a modern exhibition hall (room heights etc.). There is also an urgent need for action at Graz Messe: the deficit, which has been reduced in the meantime, has risen again.

Graz ÖVP demands "trade fair strategy"
"First of all, we urgently need a Messe 2030 strategy process," says Graz VP leader, city councillor Kurt Hohensinner. In the course of this, the future direction must be considered.

This is exactly what KPÖ city councillor Manfred Eber promises. The two executive boards had already been commissioned with a strategy process last year. "From this, we will then derive the direction in which the trade fair should go - also in terms of construction," says the city council office.