For many months, I have been tagging online articles mentioning “economic crisis”. Just in the last few weeks, though, that has changed and the tag “recovery” is altogether more common in what I have been saving.

In Asia, at least, we’re beginning to read more encouraging news about most of the major economies. This is very much in line with what our clients in the exhibitions industry in this part of the world have been telling us: 2009 won’t be a great year, but it won’t be half as bad as people have been fearing.

Once again, exhibitions are proving to be both resilient and a good barometer for economic activity. However, as exhibitor marketing and visitor travel budgets have been cut, attendees have become more selective about the fairs in which they want to participate.

Good exhibitions are almost always a resilient medium: people may go to fewer of them or take a bit less stand space, but they don’t stop attending. Once or twice a year, it is a good chance to get face-to-face interaction with customers and prove that you’re still in business. You can walk away with a box full of leads – a far more tangible return on your marketing investment than many other media.

If China’s GDP really does grow at eight per cent this year, as the predictions suggest, it will be a tremendous boost for economic activity in the region and, equally importantly, business confidence.

You can be sure that Asia’s exhibitions industry will already be capitalising on the growth.

Paul Woodward is regional manager, Asia/Pacific of UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry