Ifema Madrid Bulevar to host great cultural achievements and expects a 20% growth with a new restoration project

MADRID, April 24.

Ifema Madrid ended 2022 with a record revenue of €187.7 million, representing an increase of 90.3% compared to 2021, a year still marked by the pandemic, and concludes the year with profits of €1.9 million.

During the presentation of the results after the approval of the Board of Directors of the institution, the President of the Executive Committee of Ifema, José Vicente de los Mozos, stressed that this is a "record billing in the 40-year history of the company and also with zero public aid."

Specifically, Ifema Madrid closes the year with €187.7 million in revenue and expenses of €185.8 million, resulting in a net profit of €1.9 million, compared to €100,000 in 2021. The gross operating result (EBITDA) was €20.4 million.

During the press conference presenting the accounts, the implementation of the Strategic Plan and progress in the diversification, internationalization, and digitization of the business were highlighted as key to a year that has also undergone restructuring of its structure and a talent-capturing process.

Thus, as De los Mozos highlighted, forecasts for fiscal year 2023 will remain along the same billing line, with a forecast of €185.2 million in revenue, despite no major extraordinary events being programmed, such as the NATO Assembly or COP 25 in 2022.

In this sense, Ifema Madrid will bet on several innovative lines of business such as the restoration sector, where it expects to grow 20%, and the organization of cultural events through the Ifema Madrid Bulevar project to host "long-lasting successful events." Likewise, forecasts show that the pace of activity will continue, with 109 fairs and congresses, 31 leisure events, and more than 445 events and conventions.

During the twelve months of 2022, a year marked by the recovery of pre-pandemic activity, Ifema Madrid organized a total of 105 fairs and congresses, 28 of which were also held in a digital format through the LIVE Connect platform; nearly 400 events and conventions, and 21 leisure events and music festivals.

This activity attracted the presence of 21,360 companies and 3.7 million visitors. In this way, almost all of the planned own fairs were held, some with higher results than estimated, such as Fruit Attraction, which along with Fitur, were leaders in generating revenue.

In addition, events such as the NATO Summit or COP 25 have meant an injection in economic terms, contributing to the improvement of the 2022 results and in terms of reputation, confirming Ifema Madrid as a world reference space for hosting global events.

In the framework of a Strategic Plan designed by Ifema Madrid, the fair institution achieved in 2022 the great take-off of the Public Leisure and Events Area, a new line of activity that aims to provide value to the business by incorporating new revenue streams, as well as to leverage the use of facilities, mainly during times of low activity.

In this context, a total of 21 major leisure events were held in 2022, including shows, music festivals, concerts, and exhibitions, which attracted 1.1 million visitors. Among them, events such as the international tour of Swedish House Mafia, the Love the Twenties and Love the 90's festivals or the great magic show Hangar 52 Revolution, with numbers close to 30,000 attendees each; or the arrival of permanent events in the cultural offering of Madrid, such as Malinche, with 80,000 attendees, or WAH Show, with more than 250,000.

For 2023, Ifema Madrid will continue its commitment to leisure with a new project under the Ifema Madrid Bulevar brand. According to De los Mozos, it is not about "competing" with the Gran Vía in Madrid as a setting for major cultural events but rather of attracting projects that usually "pass by" Madrid because they cannot attract between 2,000/4,000 people.

Also, for this year, it is betting on a new restoration project that will be operated by Areas and will have 32 catering establishments, whose transformation will begin to be visualized in September. All this to turn the fairgrounds into a gastronomic hub in Madrid.

In terms of brand internationalization, Ifema Madrid continued to advance in attracting major international events, such as the NATO Summit, and other events like World Dog Show, the largest worldwide competition for dog breeders, in which more than 55,000 people and 16,500 pedigree dogs participated.

In addition, it led the return of major international conferences in person with 10 events, many of them in the scientific and medical fields, where it has positioned itself as a worldwide reference, standing out with events such as the Heart Failure Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (4,000 attendees) or the World ATM Congress, the largest air navigation event (7,000 attendees), among others. A trajectory that once again earned it the international award for the Best European Congress Center.

It also focused on capturing the interest of foreign companies and international visitors, with participation data that places international exhibitors at 17% and foreign visitors at 11%.

In addition, in terms of expansion projects, both for the creation of fairs in collaboration with local operators and for strategic consulting for the creation and management of fairgrounds, the agreement reached with Corferias, the largest operator and congress palace in Colombia, for the joint organization of events in the country, stands out, as well as the advice provided to the Dominican Republic for its new Santo Domingo Exhibition Center.

The third strategic line was the commitment to technology and innovation, both from a business point of view with the organization of hybrid and virtual events, and from operational processes.

In this context, developments such as the LIVE Connect platform, a virtual community that adds 300,000 visitors, Visual Space for digitalizing physical event production with 2D and 3D maps with geopositioned information, or the implementation of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) via Salesforce, with five functional clouds at once, have been launched.

In addition, the research work carried out by the Ifema Lab Technological Laboratory, which already has several patents in cases of using augmented reality for mixed and hybrid experiences, or the Ifema Madrid website with a total of 16,705,763 sessions, representing a 59% increase over the previous year.

Sustainability has also been a major focus of Ifema Madrid, with the aim of achieving "zero emissions" by 2025. So far, the CO2 emissions ratio, of scope 1 and 2, has been reduced by 90% in the last 6 years; 83% of the waste generated by the fair activity is recycled, and in the last 5 years, the natural gas consumption ratio has been reduced by 42%, electricity by 33%, and water consumption by 40%.

The 2022 exercise also included unique projects such as the launch of Madrid Tourism by Ifema Madrid, promoted by the Madrid Regional Government and the City Council.