Thessaloniki International Fair

Thessaloniki International Fair
Διεθνής Έκθεση Θεσσαλονίκης
Thessaloniki International Fair; Διεθνής Έκθεση Θεσσαλονίκης
	TIF—HELEXPO logo
Status	Active
Genre	Fair, exhibition
Date	First week of September
Frequency	Annual
Venue	HELEXPO Fair Grounds
Locations	Thessaloniki, Macedonia
Coordinates	40°37′40″N 22°57′19″E / 40.6278°N 22.9554°E
Country	Greece
Years active	100
Inaugurated	1926
Previous event	7–15 September 2024
Next event	6–14 September 2025
Participants	1,500 (2017)
Attendance	263,000 (2017)
Area	180,000 m2 (1,900,000 sq ft)
Organised by	HELEXPO
Website	www.thessalonikifair.gr

The Thessaloniki International Fair (Greek: Διεθνής Έκθεση Θεσσαλονίκης, Diethnis Ekthesi Thessalonikis), abbreviated TIF (ΔΕΘ), is an annual international exhibition event held in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city. It has been held in the first week of September since 1926, and its opening is traditionally marked by a series of programmatical statements by the Prime Minister of Greece. The 2020 fair was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first cancellation since WW2.

Description

The International Exhibition & Congress Centre is located in the YMCA Square of downtown Thessaloniki. Due to its location, it is accessible from the rest of the city. Sintrivani Station is located adjacent to the grounds.

The TIF HELEXPO Exhibition Centre covers a total area of 180,000 sq.m., of which 62,000 sq.m. are indoor exhibition areas, distributed into a complex of 17 pavilions that are functionally designed and interconnected to serve the needs of each event. The exhibition facilities are complemented by conference centres, parking areas, sports and recreational facilities, catering areas, citizen service centres, museums, banks and developmental agency offices. This way, Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre functions as a hub providing services that successfully meet the requirements of exhibitions, conferences and cultural events.

Similar trade fairs of the city have occurred regularly since the Byzantine era, attracting traders from all over the Balkans.

Events

It has been customary for the country's prime minister to set out his government's policies for each coming year in a speech at the annual Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, and for this reason the event has political significance in addition to its commercial importance.

Honoured Country

With 1998 being the first year, the Fair has had a honoured country. Although this doesn't occur every year, with big gaps of honoured countries, specially from 2003 - 2007 and 2012 - 2015, this occurrence seems to have been stabilised in the past decade, with a country being selected for almost every event. Below is a table of the honoured countries in the Thessaloniki International Fair.

Year	Country	Comments
Year	Country	Comments
1998	China	First honoured country in the history of the fair.
1999	None
2000	United States
2001	None
2002	France
2003	None	The organisers decided to have an honoured country every other year, something that didn't come to fruition.
2004	None
2005	None
2006	None
2007	None
2008	Italy
2009	India
2010	Hungary
2011	Serbia
2012	None
2013	None
2014	None
2015	None	It was decided that from next year the honoured country will be reinstated.
2016	Russia
2017	China	First country to be honoured twice.
2018	United States
2019	India
2020	None	The fair was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021	Greece	Honorary selection to celebrate the country's 200 years of independence.
2022	United Arab Emirates
2023	Bulgaria
2024	Germany
2025	None	Although there were reports of an unnamed Asian country being the honoured country, the focus ended up being on the 100 years of the fair's idea.
2026	Japan