Netherlands: Floriade 2022 Ends with Disappointing Results

After six months, the Floriade Expo 2022 in Almere, the Netherlands, came to an end yesterday. This time, the International Horticultural Exhibition, which takes place every ten years, focused primarily on ideas for green cities of the future – a topic whose current relevance was intended to attract numerous visitors. Hans Bakker, CEO of Floriade Expo 2022, describes the event as follows: “Floriade not only contributes to the economic value for Almere, Flevoland and the Netherlands, but especially to raising awareness of the importance of a healthy living and working environment. Thousands of inspirations, which visitors took away, make this Floriade a source of knowledge for the future. With Growing Green Cities, Floriade has shown perspective for a sustainable and liveable future!”

Later in his closing speech, however, Bakker concedes, “[…] Whilst Floriade was a wonderful event all told, we must conclude that the Expo has been financially unsuccessful. The negative end-result means a very painful, financial deficit for the City of Almere and is very much to be regretted! […] Because in reality, with just over 685,000 visitors from 96 countries, the visitor numbers of the expo fell far short of expectations, whereas significantly more visitors (up to the two-million-mark) had been expected in advance. The disappointing result had already become apparent in recent months. On top of this, the event has suffered a loss in the three-digit million range – according to media reports, the losses amount to almost 100 million euros. The main reason cited by the organizers was the disappointingly low attendance, which in turn they attribute to restrictions and consequences caused by the Covid pandemic and extremely high inflation (eap)