Second largest EFTTEX attendance ever

EFTTEX 2011 has been officially recorded as the second-best attended EFTTEX in the history of the show. The 30th anniversary show in Amsterdam was attended by 1,630 visitors, beating last year’s attendance figure in Valencia by 24. Only one other EFTTEX has recorded more visitors, another show in Amsterdam more than a decade ago, which drew 1,800 through its doors.

EFTTA CEO Jean-Claude Bel has expressed his delight at the increase in visitor numbers year-on-year, not least because an entrance fee was re-introduced for Amsterdam, making it more costly compared to Valencia.

“We had a lot of interest from Spanish retailers last year because they were desperate for a trade show in their country,” he said. “And of course it was free entry. That became our second best-attended EFTTEX, so to beat it this year with a show with an entrance fee is very gratifying.

“It’s even more encouraging when you remind yourself of the economic climate. Much of Europe is having a tough time, Spain, Portugal, Greece, even the UK.

“And when you compare it to the biggest ever EFTTEX in Amsterdam, you have to remember how much consolidation there has been in the retail trade. There are just not as many individual retailers now, so to reach this attendance figure is a good result.”

Rather than having a negative impact on attendance, the re-introduced entrance fee had the effect of improving the quality of the visitors to the show, added Jean-Claude Bel.

“I definitely got the sense that exhibitors were happy with the quality of the meetings they had this year,” he said. “We set the threshold for entry quite high which meant that the majority of visitors were intent on doing serious business with our exhibitors.”

The figures show that around 45% of visitors to EFTTEX 2011 classified themselves as wholesalers or distributors.