The rush of visitors to the FIBO exceeded all expectations
Ten per cent more exhibitors, twenty per cent more area and a plus of nearly 30 per cent for visitor numbers:
A rush of visitors which exceeded all expectations and resulted in the entrances to the exhibition hall having to be closed temporarily at times.
With a total of 96,700 visitors, the FIBO achieved the best result in its 28-year history. This is an increase of 30 per cent compared to the previous record attendance last year at Essen, Germany, where 76,200 visitors attended the world's largest trade fair for fitness, wellness and health. "Within five years, the number of visitors to the FIBO has nearly doubled," stated FIBO-Boss Olaf Tomscheit who, after eight very successful years will pass the pole position to Ralph Scholz.
"It was a superlative premiere," said Hans-Joachim Erbel, Managing Director of the FIBO organisers Reed Exhibitions, in a first summary. The FIBO also set new historic records with regard to the number of exhibiting companies and the area covered by the exhibition. After a previous record of 612 exhibitors, this year's trade fair had 670 exhibitors from 30 countries presenting their products and services on a total exhibition area of 100,000 square metres (last year: 78,000 square metres).
More expert visitors from throughout the world
More international, more experienced and in greater variety: This is how the FIBO presented itself at the new location in Cologne. Internationality in particular was given an additional push. The number of professional visitors increased to 66 per cent on the first three days (2012: 54%), and of these, a good 30 per cent were from abroad. One sixth arrived from America, Asia and the Arabian states. These included Andre Agassi, who was very enthusiastic: "The FIBO as a worldwide leading trade show for fitness and health is also well known in the U.S.A. I’m really impressed by the size and the quality of this show. All leading enterprises of the fitness industry are represented here".
The willingness to invest was correspondingly large. Nearly every other professional purchaser travelled to the FIBO with a solid investment project and during the trade fair, 25 per cent of business customers placed orders amounting to more than 50,000 Euro; 12% of them for even more than 200,000 Euro. In focus, along with equipment for fitness studios were furnishings and fittings for practices and wellness resorts. This corresponds to the visitor profile as every fifth visitor was from the field of health.
"The trade fair in the environments of the city of Cologne has become even better, more international and more varied. Overall we are very satisfied. It is very pleasant here, the infrastructure is good and the site is very modern. We are very satisfied with the figures achieved and leads gained for future business. The internationality has increased again. At our booth we cater for 25 languages and made use of all of them. We even had visitors from Japan," stated Eckbert Ganns, General Manager for Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal of the Life Fitness Europe GmbH, a Division of the Brunswick Corporation.
Katja Erbe, Brand Director Reebok Central Europe West: "The FIBO is the right trade fair for the fitness brand Reebok. We had a classic audience here and we established many interesting contacts. In addition, there was enormous media awareness before and during the trade fair. Some highlight products were already sold out on Sunday morning."
And the "Trimm-Dich" get-fit exercise tracks have been put back on the map in Germany!
Ulrich Scheffler, Managing Director of Lappset Germany: "As exhibitor at this year's FIBO our intention was to reach decision-makers throughout the trade, in particular, owners of fitness studios, and we were very successful in this. LAPPSET presented its own, brand new outdoor fitness and gym series at the exhibition. Valuable contacts were made, both national and international, and this allows us to summarise the trade fair in a very positive way."
The next FIBO will take place from April 3 – 6, 2014, at the exhibition centre in Cologne, Germany.
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