As everyone knows, motor shows have been facing a crisis for some time. With more and more carmakers ditching them and a diminishing attendance from the general public, the auto industry has been questioning the merits of these elaborate and expensive displays.
As a result, motor shows are becoming smaller and less glamourous. Not even the biggest events on the car calendar which includes the International Automobile Exhibition (IAA) – known as the Frankfurt Motor Show – is immune to this decline and in fact, the Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA), the show’s organizing body, announced that Frankfurt will not be hosting the show for 2021.
This is a major blow for the city which has been hosting the show for 70 years but the VDA says it is looking to either Berlin, Munich, or Hamburg to host the 2021 event and in total there are seven cities who are presenting their concepts and ideas hoping to host the next show.
The IAA saw a sharp decline in visitors and exhibitors during last year’s show where it attracted 550,000 people way below the 810,000 that attended in 2017 and the 931,000 in 2015. The Paris Motor Show has been filling the gap in the alternate years since 1998.
Frankfurt, home to Germany’s financial centre and the European Central Bank, was thanked by the VDA “for this long, very good and trusting partnership.”
