Munich. Monday sees the start of the construction machinery fair "bauma" - the world's largest trade fair for the industry.  It takes place every three years. Attendance was down on the first day of the fair due to the air travel restrictions in force across Europe, but organsiers hope numbers will improve towards the end of the week when the restrictions are hopefully relaxed.

The 29th International Trade Fair "bauma" is without exaggeration a fair of superlatives, which takes place every three years in Munich. A week long show at the exhibition center in Riem attracts 3150 exhibitors from 53 countries presenting their gigantic machines, where many of the exhibits are first presented to the public. The exhibition area of 550,000 square meters, is completely booked.

Messe München has built two additional temporary warehouses and extended the open air ones. Overall, the exhibition area this year is 550 000 square meters large. "The demand from Asian markets and Turkey, and from our partner country, India, was higher than ever before," says Klaus Dittrich, Managing Director of Messe München.

But above all, the hotels are almost fully booked, the visiting public will pay up to five times more for a room than about a week after the "bauma". The restaurants are looking forward to the affluent construction professionals. In the Hofbrà¤uhaus, the menus besides German and English are printed in Russian and Italian. "Ballroom and Brà¤ustüberl are already fully booked," said spokeswoman Sabine Barthelmess.  In Löwenbrà¤ukeller it is the same. Host Christian Schottenhamel is well prepared: "we celebrate every night a small Oktoberfest."