The Geneva International Motor Show, cancelled in 2020 and now not expected to take place again before 2022, has been bought by Palexpo, the exhibition hall company which hosts the show, from the Foundation of the Geneva International Motor Show (FGIMS).
The vendor said: “A majority of GIMS exhibitors who took part in a survey stated that they would probably not participate in a 2021 edition in and that they would prefer to have a GIMS in 2022. The automotive sector is currently going through a difficult phase, and exhibitors need time to recover from the effects of the pandemic. Furthermore, it is far from certain that the current health situation would permit the organisation of an event attracting more than 600,000 visitors and 10,000 journalists next spring.”
As a result of its survey, FGIMS refused the SFr16.8m (£14.1m) loan from the state of Geneva which had been contingent on an event being organised in 2021. It then decided to sell to Palexpo SA.
The Geneva Motor Show is one of the biggest events in the auto industry calendar. But Covid has already caused the cancellation of this year’s Paris, New York and Detroit motor shows, with the Beijing event likely also to be called off after having been postponed from April until September.
Autocar magazine reported that the organisers had indicated the Paris motor show event would not be repeated in its traditional form (at all), while there were also questions about the future of Germany’s biennial motor show which alternates with Paris – and which had been due to move from Frankfurt to Munich in 2021.
