This year’s CARAVAN SALON DÜSSELDORF has impressively confirmed, with its numerous innovations, again high visitor numbers and extraordinary sales, that caravanning as a form of holidaymaking and the sector as a whole is booming, enthusing many people across the widest of age groups. Celebrating its 55th anniversary this year the CARAVAN SALON was therefore able to impressively underline its leading position as the world’s largest trade fair for motorhomes and caravans.
“CARAVAN SALON 2016 was an outstanding event with great business, very good sales figures and the best mood. Despite the summery temperatures on the first weekend, this year’s fair with its 203,500 visitors will be the best in the event’s history and has more than met our expectations as organisers, as well as those of exhibitors,” said Joachim Schäfer, CEO at Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, summing up. Also very noteworthy was the high number of first-time exhibitors accounting for some 34%. The response to this year’s CARAVAN SALON proves, he said, how popular caravanning still is as a form of vacationing. “Individuality, the urge for freedom, outdoor activities and, more importantly, the desire to get to know unfamiliar regions and cities are the ingredients that make this form of holiday-making so fascinating,” said Schäfer. The Caravan Center, the caravan site at trade fair car park P1 with 3,500 pitches, was fully booked for the full duration of the fair.
Hermann Pfaff, President of the sectoral association Caravaning Industrie Verband, also delighted at how the CARAVAN SALON went: “We are extremely satisfied with the largest CARAVAN SALON in terms of area of all times. Manufacturers have made great investments to offer customers attractive and prestigious stands. The innovations presented here went down extremely well and the number of sales concluded exceeded expectations.” The CARAVAN SALON has impressively underlined its position as a leading world fair. Top-notch delegations from the USA, Australia and the entire Asiann region attended the event. “We hope that we can carry over the dynamism and spirit of the CARAVAN SALON into the autumn business of 2016,” explained Pfaff.
The extremely good mood among manufacturers and dealers perfectly complemented the 55th anniversary of CARAVAN SALON. A total of 590 national and international exhibitors presented their innovations and current models – 130 caravan and motorhome brands – in twelve halls as well as on the outdoor space. On over 210,000 square metres some 2,100 leisure vehicles were presented. Thus, the majority of exhibitors at the CARAVAN SALON expressed satisfaction with the great interest and strong sales figures.
“We are overjoyed with the trade fair result and are delighted that we have once again significantly exceeded last year’s figures,” said Gerd Adamietzki, Sales and Marketing Director at Knaus Tabbert GmbH. The mood and sales are excellent. “This is due to our excellent range of attractive vehicles but certainly also due to the good framework conditions that Messe Düsseldorf has offered us for the presentation in the Knaus Tabbert Hall 4. Dealers are drawing a very positive picture and their response reinforces the pleasing upward trend in the caravanning sector,” said Adamietzki. “This is key confirmation to us that we can offer the right products to our customers at the right time,” added Wolfgang Speck, Managing Director at Knaus Tabbert.
Also delighting at a new sales high was Holger Schulz, Managing Director at Hobby-Wohnwagenwerk Ing. Harald Striewski GmbH. “Despite the warm weather in the first half of the week demand from our customers as well as the quality of the conversations we had was exceptional. Our verdict is once again significantly better than the last, already strong year.” With caravans, he said, it was primarily floor plans featuring children’s beds that were in demand. Furthermore, very many young families were interested in high-quality caravans with upscale fittings. “The CARAVAN SALON has become indispensable. When things go well in Düsseldorf post-fair autumn business is also generally strong,” added Schulz.
Bernhard Kibler, Managing Director at Hymer GmbH, was especially delighted at the many first-time buyers primarily interested in campervans and entry-level caravans. “We were also able to post strong sales figures in our premium motorhome segment. We are extremely satisfied with the figures and have been able to record a plus in all segments.” Overall, customers are attaching increasing importance to excellent quality. Likewise, international contacts remained at a high level.
Unanimity also prevailed in terms of the quality of the conversations held here. For instance, Dr. Holger Siebert, Managing Director at Eura Mobil GmbH: “We can look back on a great CARAVAN SALON. Visitors are well informed and know what they want. We can draw a very positive verdict and have been able to achieve sales increases with all brands.” The increases were disproportionately high at Eura Mobil in the high-end and integrated vehicle range and the Forster brand has been able to establish itself on the market after just three years. What is striking is the overall calming in the campervan segment.
Bernd Wuschack, Managing Director of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service at Carthago Reisemobilbau GmbH, also came to a positive verdict. “We are delighted that our sales figures have risen again. This is due to our high-quality products as well as our new and enlarged stands. We have extended our overall space – we were able to present ourselves for the first time on our own Malibu motorhome stand thereby showcasing our entire product portfolio.”
The trade fair also went well for upstream suppliers. There was great visitor interest in the new products presented at the CARAVAN SALON, explained Carsten Oberwelland, Senior Vice President at Alois Kober GmbH. “The CARAVAN SALON offers us ideal opportunities to gain direct feedback from our end customers. As a result of intense discussions we were able to discern trends and can therefore gear ourselves up well for the future.” The drive for innovation in the sector continues unabated even though the sales figures of the previous year were not quite reached. “However, the CARAVAN SALON is the undisputed leading fair worldwide. We were able to welcome customers from Australia and recorded more visitors from the Far East.”
The 56th CARAVAN SALON DÜSSELDORF will be held from 25 August (trade visitor and media day) to 3 September 2017.
www.caravan-salon.de
Press Contact
Alexander Kempe,Marion Hillesheim
Tel.: +49(0)211/45 60-997 / - 994
Fax: +49(0)211/45 60-8548
KempeA@messe-duesseldorf.de
HillesheimM@messe-duesseldorf.de
