Last words about Basel 2019
March 28, 19
Baselworld closed the doors of its 2019 edition on Wednesday, March 26, leaving many with a feeling of wonderment about what will transpire at the 2020 edition.
Baselworld 2019 had 81,200 visitors, a drop of 22 percent compared to 2018. This show featured 520 exhibitors, down 20 percent from 2018, and hosted 3,300 media representatives, 12 percent less than in the previous year.
At the show's closing press conference, Michel Loris-Melikoff, Managing Director of Baselworld, said the show had done its best to get hotels and restaurants in town on board to avoid the ridiculous price inflation that has given the city and its people such a
bad rep over the years. I haven't seen any reviews about that yet.
What amazed me was to hear that the show's "affiliated hotels" were filled only to 75 percent of capacity. This means that they either were still too expensive or that the number of professional visitors opposite other visitors were much lower than expected - and reported.
At the same press conference, Loris-Melikoff said for the 2020 edition, he expects
prices for booth space to decrease 10 to 30 percent. But this may not be enough.
"Baselworld's pricing structure is probably the single biggest problem the fair has been
facing; high prices are a problem for all fairs. And quite possibly - aside from the
changes to modern retail structures - this could be the root of the problems for all fairs,"
Ellizabeth Doerr of the online watch platform Quill & Pad wrote.
Among other things, Baselworld 2020 will stage a Retailer Summit and host CEO Talks.
There are also plans for a Virtual Reality Zone. Gemstone exhibitors, who at Baselword
always have been hidden in Hall 3, will move into Hall 2. That is not because
Baselworld suddenly has come to love these exhibitors. The show needs these
companies to fill the enormous "holes" that have been created in Hall 2, due to the
massive desertion of prestigious watch brands that used to occupy significant stretches
of floor space.
This is a paraphrase of what a couple of Dutch watch aficionados wrote in an online
report they posted: Never before were the differences between this edition of the show
and previous ones so obvious. The whole Swatch Group was gone. But it's not all bad.
You don't walk between the high walls of multi-story stands of the big watch brands.
There is more light and some of the really nice and exciting booths of other watch
companies now can be enjoyed in all their splendour.
How different from the personal comments of a watch and jewelry professional who has
been frequenting the show since the 1980s. "It was depressing to see the empty
spaces, the poor traffic on the floors during the week days. Even on the weekend, it was
not busy. Gone are the times you'd meet the throngs of buyers just waiting to get into
the doors at opening time."
Baselworld 2020 will place April 30 through May 5, 2020, directly following the
prestigious Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), which takes place the
week before (April 26-29) in Geneva.