When the 4th Asia Outdoor trade show closed its doors in the afternoon of Aug. 2 it reported more than 14,000 trade visitors. Show management said in a release that they were “very happy” to have reached all of their objectives: more visitors, new visitors from new regions, and a noticeable stimulation of the OEM business initiated on the fairground.


Having raised its number of exhibiting brands from 245 to 288, Asia Outdoor already expected a clear increase in attendance. The number of 14,344 trade visitors exceeded even the highest expectations. Knut Jaeger, the co-founder of the trade fair said, “Our focus on creating a lively networking platform for the outdoor community worked out completely…”  

 

“Referring to our registration data and a brief analysis of the surveys we carried out throughout the show, we can say that a large number of trade visitors from the North have found their way to Nanjing. Beyond that, many smaller dealers have attended the show for the first time,” Richard Li, Assistant Director of the Nanjing fair pointed out. “After five years of booming outdoor in China, finally it arrived as a consumer trend also in the 2nd and 3rd category cities – all of them by the way megacities with up to 7 mill. inhabitants.”


Most of the 35 new outdoor brands were OEM producers looking for new markets replacing their export business. More than 86% of the attending brands have said that they will definitely attend in 2010 and some already have booked bigger booth space. The Nanjing team and its European Overseas Office in Germany are very confident that they will increase attendance again in 2010.

 

“…We’re not only focusing on quantities. We have clearly identified the key points for a successfully continued development of Asia Outdoor in the future”, says Oliver Schmitt, its director who attended the show. “Building up a platform for the outdoor community, creating opportunities for brand experience, matchmaking European brands with Asian distributors and investing in the trading up of new markets; these are the targets for the upcoming show!”