Almost 17,000 unique visitors attended Fespa Digital across its four days, beating the Hamburg figure by 30%. The event, along with co-located European Sign Expo, also attracted 536, compared to Hamburg’s tally of 370.

“It was amazing, it’s actually quite difficult to be considered about it when you’re 30% up the previous biggest show, but the event was just incredible,” said Fespa chief executive Neil Felton.

One of his highlights was the level of visitor revisits: 49% compared to Hamburg’s 40%, which he said was another indicator that the show had come of age.

“To have almost 50% revisits signals that what was once a one-day or one-and-a-half-day show now has enough to draw visitors for two or three days, which is exactly what we aimed to do,” he added.

In total the show, the sixth digital event, achieved almost 25,000 “visits”.

Munich was also the most international digital show to date; visitors from the 'DACH' countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) usually account for around 50% of visitors, but this time, two thirds of the show’s audience came from outside its traditional heartland.

“The strategy behind all of the global shows is that we can feed visitors though the bottom of the pipe at the local events and then the senior guys in China, Brazil, Africa, etc pop out of the top of the pipe to attend the global shows, and we’re really starting to see that happen,” said Felton.

“And if you have 66% of visitors flying in from all over the world, then it’s obvious that they’re going to be decision makers.”

International figures are yet to be published, but across the first two days visitor numbers for China and Hong Kong were up 125%, Turkey up 30% and Brazil 8% higher.

“Exhibitors are also becoming more and more confident in Fespa and the more confident they become of our ability deliver internationally and within Europe then the more effort they invest in the show, which makes the show an even stronger visitor proposition,” said Felton.

“The success of the show is built on collaboration, between us, our member associations, the exhibitors and, of course, the visitors. It’s a team effort and the team really delivered in Munich.”

The main Fespa event, which incorporates digital, textile and screen, will take place next May in Cologne, Germany.

• For our full briefing on Fespa Digital 2014, see Monday’s issue of PrintWeek.