2019 show looking to attract biggest audience from outside the US and Canada yet.
Last year’s North American International Toy Fair saw the equivalent of around seven football fields filled with toys.
New York hosts the largest toy show in the Western Hemisphere – 2018 saw 442,700 net square feet of exhibit space and over 26,200 attendees. The show drew an increase in international trade guests (+26%), as well as large delegations of attendees from outside the US including 3,802 international visitors, 1,589 of which were global buyers. The top five countries represented at the show (not including the US and Canada) were China, the UK, Hong Kong, Mexico and Japan.
And 2019 is set to be even bigger; at 445,000 square feet, the show will essentially be using every inch available at the Jacob K. Javits Center.
The US toy market is worth $27 billion, and the preschool sector unsurprisingly plays a key part – reflected in the importance given to it at the show.
Marian Bossard, evp global market events at The Toy Association – the organiser of Toy Fair New York – explains to PPS: “To put it into context, the US Census Bureau reported that approximately 3.8 million babies were born in the US in 2017 and, while that may be down 2% from 2016, that’s still a lot of soon-to-be three and four year old kids who will be playing with toys.
“The show offers a dedicated section to infant and preschool toys. However, with so many companies that offer toys and games for this demographic, preschool-specific toys can be seen across the show floor.”
