The 2016 METSTRADE Show has once again broken all previous records for exhibitor and visitor attendance. The three-day B2B event in Amsterdam, which ran from November 14-17, saw 6,610 personnel from 1,471 exhibiting companies welcome a final total of 23,702 visits.

The figure of 15,541 unique visitors was an increase of 8% on the previous highpoint set in 2015, and they represented 11,091 different companies, a year-on-year rise of 7.5%.

“The 2016 edition of METSTRADE may well be remembered as the year which the show raised the bar to the next level,” says Irene Dros, RAI Amsterdam’s maritime METSTRADE manager. “The side programme of conferences and events was bigger and better than ever before, and it is clear that METSTRADE increasingly serves as a magnet for smart initiatives from across every discipline and market within the maritime world.”

A packed programme of events before, during and after the show – including conferences in the superyacht, leisure marine sustainability, yacht design & construction and marina sectors – added to the bustling professional atmosphere of METSTRADE.

The busiest day of the exhibition, the Wednesday, saw almost 10,000 visitors file into the RAI Amsterdam centre to access the 11 halls open for business – a 3,000sq m increase on last year’s show floor layout.

Strong year-on-year growth was seen at the three shows-within-a-show: the SuperYacht Pavilion hosted 265 exhibitors (compared to 224 in 2015), with 64 stands in the sold-out Marina & Yard Pavilion (49 in 2015) and 45 in the Construction Material Pavilion (31 in 2015).

Turning to visitor numbers, no less than 64% were from outside the Netherlands. Italy, France and Denmark, three countries which have always been well represented at METSTRADE, saw significant rises this year. There was also a large number of Russian, Polish and Swiss visitors in attendance, which has not been the case before.

Moreover, 85% of the overall visitor total had decision-making authority within their company, and 22% of visitors were under 35 years of age – a 10% rise on METSTRADE 2015.

Next year’s METSTRADE Show will return to the Amsterdam RAI convention centre from November 14-16, 2017.