The IAA auto show has just left the traditional Frankfurt location, and a newly designed IAA will celebrate its premiere in Munich this autumn. In the future, the trade fair city of Frankfurt will be relying on a different means of transport: the bicycle. From 2022 onwards, the world’s leading trade fair for the bicycle industry, Eurobike, will take place in the city on the Main. And no longer – as has been customary since the early 1990s – in the Lake Constance city of Friedrichshafen.
Why is the fair being postponed?
There are mutliple reasons for this. One of the most important: the exhibition halls in Friedrichshafen have been pretty tight recently. The Eurobike began in 1991 as a pure specialist and sectoral fair for the then still young branch of mountain bike manufacturers – at the time, the trade fair organizers were ridiculed by many established manufacturers. That changed over the years, the show gradually developed into the leading trade fair for the entire bicycle industry, at the latest since the international two-wheeler fair IFMA in Cologne ceased in 2008. Competitors on an international level are the Interbike in Las Vegas and the Taipei Cycle Show in Taiwan.
How many visitors come to Eurobike every year?
The trade fair has so far taken place every year at the beginning of September, but in 2020 it had to be canceled due to the corona pandemic, this year a slimmed-down version is planned from September 1st to 4th. At the last Eurobike in early autumn 2019, more than 1,400 exhibitors from 60 countries were guests in Friedrichshafen, and a little more than 65,000 visitors were on site. This posed challenges to the city of 60,000 inhabitants again and again: the hotel capacities were rarely sufficient for the many visitors, many trade fair guests stayed in the surrounding area and pedaled to the trade fair grounds on their bikes in the morning. In addition, the transport links to Friedrichshafen are anything but ideal: the city can almost only be reached by rail using regional trains, and the nearest motorway connection is 25 kilometers away; In addition, long-distance buses, for example from Munich and Zurich, regularly travel to the city on the eastern shore of Lake Constance.
What is planned in Frankfurt in the future?
The two exhibition companies in Frankfurt and Friedrichshafen have founded a joint venture. It is now aiming for an “extensive concept change”, as Uwe Behm, Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt, says. After all, “the traffic turnaround is in full swing,” says Behm; The topics of climate protection and the traffic transition are “high on the agenda”, adds Frankfurt’s Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann. The plan is to bring the bike “right into the city”; the focus of the cycling industry and bike users has recently shifted away from the sports sector and towards urban mobility. It is therefore the aim of the trade fair organizers to put the bike “at the center of the transport policy debate,” Feldmann continued. In addition, the date will be moved forward significantly, namely from the beginning of September to mid-July. Or to be more precise: from July 13th to 17th, 2022.
Will end consumers also be able to visit the show?
Clearly: yes. In the past, the fair in Friedrichshafen was usually only open to trade visitors for the first few days; Dealers poured into the halls and placed their orders, manufacturers and suppliers made contacts. At the weekend everyone could marvel at the new products. In Frankfurt it should now run similarly – only on a larger scale: After three specialist days, a “festival weekend” is planned, as the two trade fair companies announced. The good location of Frankfurt in the middle of Germany and the good connection, for example, to the ICE network of the railway open up “growth prospects in terms of area and participant numbers”, as it is called. So the planners want to significantly increase the number of visitors.
Are there also critical voices?
Yes. The date in July is “neither fish nor meat,” says Stefan Stiener, boss of the bike manufacturer Velotraum. The date is too late to process orders from business partners, and the trade fair is too early for end customers. Because at the time, many bikes from the current season are still at the dealerships; if the new products for the coming season are already on display at the trade fair, many end consumers may hesitate to buy a new bike. Bicycle activists also criticize that Frankfurt is still a “traditional car city”; In order to give the bike more space, a lot has to be done. And last but not least, it should be interesting to what extent Eurobike will be able to hold its own against other (mobility) trade fairs – the IAA, for example, is also appearing at the new location in Munich with the promise that it will no longer be a pure auto show, but also other forms of mobility to open opposite. The strong growth in electrically assisted bicycles, pedelecs and e-bikes, in particular, prompted the trade fair organizers to invite the bicycle industry to join the World Cycling Forum should be able to present itself to an international audience as well as to end consumers.