British Motor Show beats expectations

Posted on 07/31/2006 under: Motorsport, News

Attendance at the British International Motor Show is set to hit 420,000 when doors close to the public yesterday. That's a 23 per cent increase on visitor numbers for the last show in 2004, according to robust 2007 ABC auditing guidelines introduced by show organiser imie. Last week organisers forecast just over 400,000 visitors by the end of the show. But this had to be revised upwards on the back of a strong final week for the Docklands-based show. By the close of play on Friday, attendance had already topped 345,000.

Rob Mackenzie, director of show organiser imie explained, 'In the final week we've had unprecedented weekday attendances. I can't think of any other public show where weekdays have exceeded the weekends - or got remotely near. But last week, day after day we saw crowds grow. It's hugely encouraging for us and for the exhibitors who have shown faith in this magnificent show.'

Christopher Macgowan, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders added, 'The decision to move the British International Motor Show to London was a massive step for the industry. The aim was to put our show back where it belonged on the international map and I am delighted that this decision has been totally vindicated. We very much look forward to working with the organiser to build on this success story when we return to ExCeL London in 2008.'

The show has also been a hit with virtual visitors. By the end of Friday, http://www.britishmotorshow.co.uk had welcomed more than one million individual site visitors to the motor show on-line. That's up 100 per cent on the half a million who visited the show site back in 2004. Individual page views topped a staggering three and half million with 76 per cent of advance ticket sales coming via the busy web site.