This year’s CARAVAN SALON DÜSSELDORF has provided impressive proof that caravanning as a way of holidaymaking inspires people and that trade fairs can be held successfully even in Corona times. Messe Düsseldorf and the Caravaning Industrie Verband e. V. (CIVD) can look back on very positive results. "With 107,000 visitors the 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", rejoices Erhard Wienkamp, Managing Director Messe Düsseldorf.

“The whole 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 lots of passion – this passion for mobile leisure was omnipresent over the past ten days”, says Wienkamp. The mood at the fairground has been excellent. Just as positive, he adds, is the fact that more and more newbies as well as many young families have visited the caravanning trade fair.

Hermann Pfaff, President of the Caravaning Industrie Verband, was also thrilled with how the CARAVAN SALON went: “These visitor numbers are a very good result under the circumstances. The fact that they include many newcomers and that the average age has come down markedly shows that we are currently experiencing an inflow of completely new customers. The success of the event, however, is not only measured by the attendance figures but above all by the sales deals concluded – and those were even higher than in the record year across the board. Add to this, the customers’ very useful direct feedback that manufacturers can only get in this way at a trade fair. Furthermore, the expert exchange on the biggest B-2-B platform of our industry is extremely valuable for exhibitors.”  

The exhibitors of CARAVAN SALON were also exuberant about the results of the trade fair and reported very good sales closed.

“After initial scepticism we are overall very happy to have presented our products at this year’s CARAVAN SALON in Düsseldorf. Although the number of visitors was limited our Hobby sales team were kept 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 up, the CARAVAN SALON – even under these special circumstances – proved a really nice trade fair,” says Holger Schulz, Managing Director at Hobby.

Dr. Holger Siebert, Managing Director at Eura Mobil GmbH and Trigano Deutschland KG, says: “This Caravan Salon was special – we have held the first major trade fair in Germany in precarious 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 that has done a perfect job in the run-up to and during the trade fair. Occupying 15,000 square metres of exhibition space with 20 brands in the segments motor caravan, caravan, accessories and rentals the Trigano Group showed trust the trade fair and our decision proved right. All brands succeeded in increasing their sales. Our premium brand Eura Mobil saw the new Contura on a Mercedes chassis celebrate its debut. The modern entry-level brand Forster proved particularly popular among the noticeably younger trade fair visitors this year, especially the starter vans priced below EUR 35,000. The tradition-rich Karmann-Mobil brand exhibited on a substantially enlarged exhibition stand and benefited from the trend towards camper vans /buses. Finally, the Spanish brand Benimar, which was represented in Düsseldorf for the first time, staged an impressive market entry on a 900 m² 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,” said 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: “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. Be it Carthago or Malibu – the numerous innovations presented for our motor caravan brands went down extremely well with the avidly 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 retail partners and we ourselves expect equally successful follow-up business after the fair.”

Mike Reuer, Managing Director at Westfalia Mobil GmbH, also echoes this positive verdict: “We are pleased we opted to participate at the CARAVAN SALON and display our products here. In line with the hygiene concept there were fewer trade fair visitors touring 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 posted in the previous year. In our opinion the trade fair company has put the detailed hygiene concept into practice 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 markedly enlarged stand space, thereby easing visitor routing and allowing for sufficient waiting areas by the vehicles. Conversations on the stand and in the guest area were very relaxed, safe and at ease thanks to the partition screens we had installed between the tables.”

The trade fair also went well for the suppliers in the “Technik-Order” segment featuring technical equipment, detachable parts and installations for order. Commenting on this 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 and novelties on the market hands on – which is why I am happy about returning to normal. For the many newcomers in the caravanning sector the CARAVAN SALON is the ideal opportunity to gather information and gain a comprehensive overview. Needless to say, there were much fewer people in total but instead the quality of the leads with in-depth and probing conversations was very high. We welcomed a surprisingly large number of well-informed visitors to our stand.”

“The decision to join the fray as an exhibitor here in Düsseldorf proved absolutely right. The 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 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 there were fewer B-2-B leads generated as was to be expected. Both manufacturers and visitors felt at home and safe; the considerate and mindful attitude towards fellow attendees was particularly striking and pleasant to note,” sums up Nicolaus Hirsch, Managing Director at Linnepe GmbH.

The 60th CARAVAN SALON Düsseldorf will be held from 27 August to 5 September 2021.

www.caravan-salon.de