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Baselworld Slashes Exhibitor Numbers in Half

Nov 15, 2017 9:34 AM   By Rapaport News
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About half as many exhibitors will attend the shorter 2018 Baselworld watch-and-jewelry fair compared to this year, after organizers scaled back the annual show in response to difficult market conditions.

The upcoming March edition will feature only 600 to 700 exhibiting companies, versus about 1,300 this year, MCH Swiss Exhibition announced last week. The event will also last six days, rather than the usual eight days.

“The watch and jewelry market is undergoing a period of profound change, first and foremost through the increasing consolidation of the market in terms of production and marketing, but also through the challenges and opportunities of digital technology,” MCH explained. The 2018 event will be “denser and more concentrated,” it added.

From 2018, the show will feature “new forms of real-time digital communication,” as organizers try to turn the event into an expanded platform for marketing and communication, MCH continued.

Switzerland’s watch trade has faltered in the past two years, largely due to a slowdown in Asian markets. Swiss watch exports increased 1.5% to $14.61 billion (CHF 14.41 billion) in the first nine months of the year as demand from China and Hong Kong recovered. However, shipments were still 9% lower than the same period in 2015.
Tags: basel, Baselworld, events, Exhibitions, MCH, MCH Swiss Exhibition, Rapaport News, shows, Swiss watch exports, Swiss watches, trade fairs, watches
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