Germany : International visitor numbers drop at ispo summer 06

German sporting goods exhibition ispo summer 06, which took place in Munich from July 16 to 18, 2006, had slightly lower participation with approximately 19,000 (20,722*) trade visitors. A total of 1,015 exhibitors (915) exhibitors from 47 countries presented their latest production innovations and collections of the summer season 2007 to purchasers from approximately 100 countries. The foreign share of exhibitors was 76 percent (78%), and it was again about 46 percent on the visitor side. The German trade visitors were especially reserved following the very demanding World Cup weeks and due to the hot summer temperatures. In addition to the traditionally strong participation from EU countries and Switzerland, there was positive development in numbers of visitors especially from Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey, India, North and South America, from the Balkans to China and Japan and all the way to Australia and New Zealand. A number of new platforms were the focus of the trade fair offers, which provided visitors with an advance overview of upcoming trends and which were also strong points of attraction for the media as reports. The new Kids’ Zone, Golfwear Village and Boardsports Village attracted a lot of interest. Ortwin Dellevoet, Crocs Sales Manager, said, “We are really happy to be back at ispo. We were able to meet many new customers here, many from Eastern European countries, Russia, Pakistan and Iran in addition to Germany and Austria. It is again a very successful trade fair for us, and you can see that our booth is always full from mornings to evenings every day.”