Geneva Motor Show or Bern Moto Festival: Which fair attracted more visitors?

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Last week the GIMS auto show took place in Geneva from February 27 to March 3, 2024. And almost at the same time, from February 29 to March 3, the largest national two-wheeler trade fair, Motofestival, will take place in Bern. Before the event, both organizers were optimistic about visitor numbers. They were not afraid that the two public fairs might cannibalize each other.

In Geneva, the hall manager Sandro Mesquita, 49, and the president of the sponsoring foundation, Alexandre de Senarclens, 48, expected 200,000 visitors over six days open to the public. Organizers in Bern were hoping to attract more visitors to the second moto festival than last year’s 40,000 visitors.

168,000 visitors to Geneva

But the reality was different. Although Geneva organizers raved about a “satisfying result” and “a promising rebirth in one of the most prestigious international events in the auto industry” in their official announcement, in the end only less than 168,000 people showed up for the Geneva Motor Show. Although this is significant, it is clearly below the hoped-for figure of 200,000 and a long way from the almost 700,000 visitors of the golden car show days before Corona (albeit with almost twice as many exhibition days).

There are 40,000 visitors in Bern

Swissmoto, which moved from Zurich to Bern and turned into the Moto Festival in 2023, does not seem to accelerate much in Bern. Organizer and Bernexpo managing director Tom Winter (48) is officially pleased with the turnout for the second event in Bern: “Our Moto Festival showed how great and uninterrupted the passion and joy for motorcycles is in our country.” Still, people in Bern were secretly hoping for slightly more than 40,000 visitors over the four days of the exhibition. During Swissmoto’s heyday, around 70,000 visitors came to Zurich.

After all: Bundestag Member and Transport Minister Albert Rösti (56) paid his personal tribute to both mobility fairs with an official visit, thus underlining the importance of the automobile and motorcycle industry and its public trade fairs.

Source: Blick