Coronavirus Impact: The 50 Largest Events Cancelled or Postponed due to Covid-19 So Far

Published on March 11, 2020
Matthew Hicks
Director of Data Assurance

Event cancellations and postponements have skyrocketed as the novel coronavirus spreads across the world. February experienced a 500% increase in significant and major events being cancelled or postponed compared to the same month last year, and March has reached 590% already. Update: We re-calculated the March cancellation and postponement rate for significant to major events as it was a week old. It is now 875%.

These changes are costing billions of dollars and are likely to continue for some time, especially as the virus spreads into new countries.

PredictHQ is keeping our customers informed about which events are cancelled, postponed, rescheduled or are continuing as planned. This enables them to update their strategies for the coming weeks and months, as well as ensure their 2021 forecasting does assume the coronavirus impact is their new normal. This article maps out how to understand, correlate and adapt to decremental demand drivers. We are also working proactively with news outlets such as Recode to share information.

Despite the cancellation of more than 850 events in February and March 2020, there are still over 35,000 significant and major events scheduled over the next three months, as well as millions of smaller events that frequently combine to form perfect storms of demand.

Get in touch with our team to get access to our millions of verified and ranked events to use in your demand forecasting. We update the API every minute so you’ll be among the first to know when events are cancelled, postponed and rescheduled.

Below is our list of the 50 largest events to be cancelled or postponed so far (as of March 9 Pacific time). They are organized by the number of attendees, not by economic impact.

Event NameCountryAttendanceOriginal date in 2020
Beijing International Automotive Exhibition – POSTPONEDChina820000April 21 – 30
i Light Singapore - POSTPONEDSingapore800000March 6 – 29
Geneva International Motor Show - CANCELLEDSwitzerland602511March 5 – 15
BNP Paribas Open - CANCELLEDUnited States450000March 9 – 22
SXSW - CANCELLEDUnited States417400March 13 – 22
Salone del Mobile - POSTPONEDItaly386000April 21 – 26
Appliance & Electronics World Expo - POSTPONEDChina350000March 11 – 14
China International Furniture Fair (Guangzhou) - POSTPONEDChina340000March 18 – 21
China Food & Drinks Fair - POSTPONEDChina300000March 22 – 25
CIFF Phase I – Home Furniture - POSTPONEDChina297759March 18 – 21
Seoul Living Design Fair - CANCELLEDSouth Korea286265March 11 – 15
CIAACE Beijing - POSTPONEDChina286000February 18 – 21
Leipziger Buchmesse - CANCELLEDGermany286000March 12 – 15
Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna - POSTPONEDItaly265000March 12 -16
International Signs & Led Exhibition(ISLE) - POSTPONEDChina250000February 24 – 27
Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris (The Paris Marathon) - POSTPONEDFrance250000April 5
Light + Building - POSTPONEDGermany220000March 8 – 13
Hannover Messe - POSTPONEDGermany215000April 20 – 24
Fair of Lyon - POSTPONEDFrance205000March 20 – 30
Arnold Sports Festival - CANCELLEDUnited States200000March 5 – 8
Shanghai APPPEXPO - POSTPONEDChina200000March 4 – 7
Ultra Music Festival - POSTPONEDUnited States165000March 20 – 22
ITB Berlin - CANCELLEDGermany160000March 4 – 8
Livre Paris - CANCELLEDFrance160000March 20 -23
AnimeJapan - CANCELLEDJapan152331March 21 – 24
Chinese F1 Grand Prix - POSTPONEDChina150000April 17 – 19
Hotelex Shanghai - POSTPONEDChina147000March 29 – April 1
Interop-Tokyo - CANCELLEDJapan143806April 13 – 15
Fibo Global Fitness Retailtech Japan - POSTPONEDGermany143000April 2 – 5
Retailtech Japan - CANCELLEDJapan127871March 3 – 6
The Blue Bay LPGA Tournament - CANCELLEDChina125000March 5 – 8
Download Festival Paris - CANCELLEDFrance120000May 29 – 31
Fensterbau Frontale - POSTPONEDGermany110000March 18 – 21
Mobile World Congress - CANCELLEDSpain109000February 24 – 27
Cartoomics - POSTPONEDItaly103000March 13 – 15
Asiamold - POSTPONEDChina98776February 26 – 28
Baselworld - POSTPONEDSwitzerland94000April 30 – March 5
China International Equipment & Manufacturing Industry Expo - POSTPONEDChina93190March 6 – 9
Expo West - POSTPONEDUnited States85000March 3 – 7
Prolight + Sound Guangzhou - POSTPONEDChina81154February 4 – 27
Foodex Japan - CANCELLEDJapan80426March 10 – 13
Hong Kong Marathon - CANCELLEDHong Kong74000February 9
Bangtan Boys (BTS) Seoul - CANCELLEDSouth Korea70000April 19
Annecy Venetian Carnival - CANCELLEDFrance70000March 6 – 8
International Journalism Festival - CANCELLEDItaly65000April 1 – 5
Shanghai World Travel Fair - POSTPONEDChina58000April 23 – 24
Beauty Dusseldorf - POSTPONEDGermany58000March 6 – 8
Dental South China - POSTPONEDChina55000March 2 – 5
International Home + Housewares Show - CANCELLEDUnited States52000March 14 – 17
HIMSS Conference and Exhibition - CANCELLEDUnited States43000March 14 – 18
HSBC Women’s World Championship - CANCELLEDSingapore32000February 27 – March 1

This list is only 50 of the hundreds of significant and major events cancelled so far. With thousands of high-impact events globally each month still scheduled and occurring, it’s imperative businesses track cancellations and postponements and update their strategies as quickly as possible.