Shanghai Show Changing

SHANGHAI, China – The 19th China Int’l Bicycle & Motor Fair which is currently taking place in Shanghai and which will close tomorrow, is indicating the same trend as at last year’s show; a drop in international visitors.

Next to that China’s leading trade show is suffering from a significant drop in the number of exhibitors which has all to do with the current economic downturn. Or could it be blamed on the late dates of the show which are not inline at all with the current buying cycle of the industry?

This year’s ‘Shanghai Show’ wasn’t opened with the usual dragons and drums, but with pigeons and balloons. Maybe the organizers could have better sticked to the usual festivities surrounding the opening ceremony as this probably is more suited to the core visitor of this show. That core visitor is more and more the Chinese consumer.

That the Shanghai Show is changing spurred one of the exhibitors to state: “You can also see that in the marketing done by exhibitors. There’s a growing focus on the domestic market and with that ‘Shanghai’ is changing from an international trade show into a domestic consumer show.”

However, one also has to take into account that the19th China Int’l Bicycle & Motor Fair like the 18th edition, had to cope with unexpected downfalls. Last year it were sudden stricter rules enforced by the Chinese government for entry visa due to the Olympic Games; this year the visitors numbers were affected because of the outbreak of the Mexican flu.