FRANCE – Fashion trade shows Who’s Next and Premiere Classe have seen the number of Middle Eastern exhibitors rise by 25 per cent.
Exhibition organiser WSN Development claims the events are still cashing in on the buzz generated by the Middle East Fashion Days events, which it has organised in Dubai since October 2009. Buyers from the Middle East have also increased in number, with those from Lebanon made up a significant proportion of buyers, followed by Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The organiser claims 54,180 buyers visited the events, which ended last week (25 January). This would represent an overall rise of four per cent compared with January 2010. The French event, held in Paris’s Porte de Versailles, was split roughly 65 per cent for domestic visitors (35,030) and 35 per cent for the rest of the world (19,152 visitors), according to organisers.
Asia remains the second most represented continent accounting for 12 per cent of the international attendance.
The result was offset by a drop in attendance from the Americas. After a rise in attendance in January 2010, the USA showed a 6.3 per cent drop with 386 buyers, and attendance dropped slightly (-3.2%) with 848 visitors. The number of buyers from Brazil fell by 25.6 per cent while Canada also showed a slight decrease with 190 buyers, down four per cent on last year.
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