Once again, Eurobike was able to present itself as an important platform for the international bicycle industry. From start-up founders, dealers and decision-makers from medium-sized companies to executives from large corporations: A total of 42,720 trade visitors (2015: 45,870) came to Lake Constance. A further 34,400 bike fans (2015: 20,730) wanted to get on their bikes over the weekend.

This means that the second Festival Day, i.e. the second public day, which was held for the first time, attracted around 14,000 visitors to the trade fair.

Klaus Wellmann, Managing Director of Messe Friedrichshafen, summarizes: "As a supplement to the international trade exchange, Eurobike celebrated bike enthusiasm on a new level with the new Festival Days and everyone was able to experience the great importance of bicycle mobility in society." Head of Division Stefan Reisinger adds: "We are delighted with the new edition with its strong communication and the fact that we were also able to increase internationality with guests from 106 nations."

Much optimism among the trade fair organizers

The Eurobike organizers are somewhat optimistic in the press release, as the presence of almost all market-leading companies is mentioned. Understandably from the point of view of the trade fair organizers, it is not directly described that manufacturers such as Specialized, Trek or Cube are staying away from Eurobike and focusing on in-house events.

The e-bike carries the industry

"2016 is the year of the e-bike. More and more people are interested in this intelligent, economical and ecologically sensible form of mobility. This became clear at Eurobike," says Tamara Winograd, Head of Marketing and Communication at Bosch eBike Systems, describing the ongoing trend of bicycle fans continuing to be electrified. "E-biking is now more than just a trend and has long since arrived at the heart of society. Eurobike is an important building block in this success story and offers the industry an ideal platform to draw attention to innovations and further developments," continues Winograd.

Spectacle for the media

Eurobike was once again a media spectacle. 1,766 media representatives from 41 countries informed themselves about the events in Friedrichshafen. "For me, Eurobike is a flagship event and the industry gets a lot of media attention here," says Hebie Managing Director Dirk Niermann about the anniversary trade fair.

Competition from manufacturers' own events

Eurobike area manager Stefan Reisinger notes: "In recent decades, we have experienced an almost continuous increase in our visitor numbers. For the first time, we are now registering a decline, primarily among German trade visitors. The reasons for this range from the course of the season so far to increasing competition due to the growing number of manufacturers' own events. We have received extensive feedback on our new concept and have talked a lot with our customers about the future direction and further development. One result of this is that next year we will focus on addressing end consumers with a Festival Day on Saturday. This means that Eurobike 2017 will take place from Wednesday, August 30 to Saturday, September 2, without the originally planned Sunday."

Fewer German trade visitors

Bernhard Lange, Managing Partner of Paul Lange & Co. OHG, adds: "The 25th Eurobike was definitely a good trade fair for us. We had very good discussions and it can be seen that the mood in the trade is definitely positive - also thanks to the fortunately improved weather conditions in recent weeks. However, it cannot be concealed that we have noticed a decline in the number of German trade visitors."

Bold program in eleven areas: the premiere of the Festival Days

The Eurobike Festival Days, which attracted 34,400 visitors to Lake Constance at the weekend, offered infotainment around the new bike trends. "For two days, the industry celebrated bikes with all bike fans. The response was very good and we were able to provide the right impetus to get more people on bikes in the future," said Eurobike Project Manager Dirk Heidrich, pleased with the successful new concept.

Over 3000 bikes were available for test rides in the demo area. On top of that, there were show performances with the stars of the bike scene, live concerts by internationally popular bands, lots of lectures, workshops as well as races, rides and parties. Anne Schmidt from the manufacturer Croozer: "The end user days are very important to us - apart from the fact that it's simply fun to show users the products. People want to touch it, try it out, and that's why it was absolutely clear to us that we would take part in the two end user days."

The courtship of the audience

When launching the Festival Days, Messe Friedrichshafen declared its aim to become the most important end consumer festival for cyclists. This goal now seems out of reach, as the reduction to one public day speaks for itself.

The 26th Eurobike will take place from Wednesday, August 30 to Saturday, September 2, 2017.

www.eurobike-show.de
www.eurobike-festivaldays.de