Special attention to hygiene, social distancing and mandatory masks set a “new normal” for trade and consumer shows.
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Successful Carvan Salon 2020 – First Trade Fair in Dusseldorf, Germany Since COVID-19 Lockdown
- 107,000 visitors at the first major trade fair after the COVID-19 lockdown
- Highly satisfied exhibitors with very good sales results
This year’s CARAVAN SALON DÜSSELDORF has impressively proven that the vacation form of caravanning inspires people and that trade fairs can be successfully held even in times of COVID-19. Messe Düsseldorf and the Caravaning Industry Association (CIVD) are pleased about the very positive results. “With 107,000 visitors, CARAVAN SALON sends an important signal for the entire trade fair industry in Germany and Europe. The world’s most important trade fair for caravanning convinced with its well thought-out hygiene and infection protection concept”, stated Erhard Wienkamp, Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf.
“The entire team at Messe Düsseldorf and CIVD as well as all employees of our exhibitors turned this trade fair into a fantastic experience with great commitment and a lot of passion – this passion for mobile leisure was ever-present over the past ten days”, commented Wienkamp. The atmosphere at the fairground was excellent. Just as positive is the fact that more newcomers as well as many young families visited the caravanning trade fair.
Hermann Pfaff, President of the Caravaning Industry Association, was also delighted: “These visitor numbers are a very good result under the circumstances. The fact that there are many newcomers and that the average age has fallen significantly shows that we are currently experiencing an influx of completely new customers. The success of the event is not only measured by the number of visitors, but above all by the number of sales – and these were all even higher than in the record year before. Added to this is the very valuable direct feedback from customers, which manufacturers can only obtain at a trade show. In addition, the professional exchange at the largest B2B platform in our industry is of great value to the exhibitors.”
The CARAVAN SALON exhibitors were also thrilled about the results of the trade fair and reported very good sales.
“After initial skepticism, we are generally very pleased to have presented our products at this year’s CARAVAN SALON in Düsseldorf. Although the number of visitors was limited our Hobby sales team was very busy. Our customers – also including many young people – were highly interested and very patient and relaxed at the same time. Apart from our vehicles the well thought-out hygiene concept was also received very well by visitors and distancing measures were observed. To sum it up, CARAVAN SALON – even under these special circumstances – was a really nice trade fair,” said Holger Schulz, Managing Director of Hobby.
Dr. Holger Siebert, Managing Director at Eura Mobil GmbH and Trigano Deutschland KG, added: “This Caravan Salon was special – we held the first major trade fair in Germany in difficult times. The atmosphere was relaxed and positive, and the parties involved highly satisfied with the results at the end of the day. Our thanks as exhibitors go to Messe Düsseldorf who has done a perfect job in the run-up to and during the trade fair. Occupying 161,000 square feet of exhibition space with 20 brands in the segments motor caravan, caravan, accessories and rentals, the Trigano Group had confidence in the trade fair and our decision was right. All brands succeeded in increasing their sales. Our premium brand Eura Mobil debuted the new Contura on a Mercedes chassis. The modern entry-level brand Forster was particularly popular among the noticeably younger trade fair visitors this year, especially the starter vans priced below EUR 35,000. The traditional brand Karmann-Mobil was able to profit from the trend towards vans / panel vans on a significantly enlarged exhibition stand. For the first time in Düsseldorf, the Spanish brand Benimar was represented, making an impressive market entry on a 9,600 square feet stand.
“This year’s CARAVAN SALON was a resounding success despite all the special circumstances. As one of the most beautiful and currently safest forms of vacationing, caravanning boasts enormous potential – as the trade fair clearly demonstrated,” remarked Gerd Adamietzki, CSO at Knaus Tabbert AG, and added: “We are so delighted the trade fair could be held in Düsseldorf. It provides us with the perfect setting for staging our products; and the growth rates we posted yet again show that the innovations by Knaus Tabbert inspire customers – caravanning has really become mainstream now. In a nutshell: CARAVAN SALON 2020 has exceeded our expectations. This is also attributable to the exemplary implementation of Messe Düsseldorf’s hygiene and safety concept.”
Bernd Wuschack, Manager Sales, Marketing and After-Sales Service at the Carthago Group, agreed: “CARAVAN SALON 2020 called for a lot of courage in these times of the pandemic. Courage on the part of Messe Düsseldorf, on the part of exhibitors and dealers as well as on the part of visitors. This courage has paid off for all parties involved: the audience behaved in a very disciplined and mindful manner, our specially developed exhibition concept with separate meeting islands met with a very positive response and the hygiene concept of Messe Düsseldorf was successful. Whether Carthago or Malibu – the numerous innovations presented for our motor caravan brands were well accepted by the very interested visitors. They were just as pleased with the relaxed atmosphere at our trade fair stand. In view of the unique circumstances this year’s CARAVAN SALON was truly a very successful trade fair for the Carthago Group. Now our trade partners and we ourselves are expecting an equally successful follow-up business after the trade fair”.
According to Mike Reuer, Managing Director at Westfalia Mobil GmbH: “We are pleased we decided to participate at CARAVAN SALON and display our products here. In line with the hygiene concept there were fewer trade fair visitors in the halls than in previous years – but we saw visitors with an increased and concrete interest in camper vans and buses. The positive result is that direct sales to end users clearly exceeded those from the previous year. In our opinion the trade fair company implemented the detailed hygiene concept very well. Visitors were very disciplined, wearing face masks and waiting at a distance to inspect the vehicles. These were placed further apart on our significantly enlarged stand space, thereby easing visitor routing and providing sufficient waiting areas by the vehicles. Conversations on the stand and in the guest area were very relaxed and safe due to the partition screens we had installed between the tables.”
CARAVAN SALON also went well for the suppliers in the “Technik-Order” segment featuring technical equipment, detachable parts and installations for order. John-David Pozzi, Managing Director at Fiamma S.p.A., said: “We are satisfied and can look back on a very successful trade fair. Customers need to see the innovations on the market hands on – therefore I am happy about the return to normality. For the many newcomers in the caravanning sector CARAVAN SALON is the ideal opportunity to gather information and gain a comprehensive overview. Of course, there were far fewer people in total, but the quality of the customer contacts was very high with in-depth and long talks. A surprisingly large number of well-informed visitors with specific requests came to our stand.”
“It was absolutely the right decision to be an exhibitor here in Düsseldorf. CARAVAN SALON gives us ideal opportunities to obtain direct feedback from our end users. We found the conversations very helpful and the audience very focused and are satisfied with the sales deals concluded. The exhibitors representing the upstream supply industries here rate the results of the trade fair as positive – even though, as expected, there were fewer B-2-B leads generated. Both manufacturers and visitors felt comfortable and safe, and above all, the consideration and mindful attitude towards fellow attendees was very noticeable and beneficial,” summarized Nicolaus Hirsch, Managing Director of Linnepe GmbH.
The 60th CARAVAN SALON will be held from August 27 – September 5, 2021 at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany. For information on visiting or exhibiting at CARAVAN SALON 2021, contact
Messe Düsseldorf North America
Tel: (312) 781-5180; E-mail: info@mdna.com
Visit www.caravan-salon.com and www.mdna.com; Follow MDNA on twitter at http://twitter.com/mdnachicago
