Dubai Motorshow 2003 visitor numbers up 82%

Dubai's role as a leading commercial centre in the region and the Dubai World Trade Centre's expertise in organizing and hosting exhibitions has once again ensured that the 7th Middle East International Motorshow has recorded excellent growth with as many as 75,167 visitors checking out the vehicles on display during the five-day show that concluded today.

"We have received a fantastic visitor turnout which ascertains the city's long established role as the premier regional hub, servicing the rest of the region and DWTC's ability to create and deliver events that constantly generate higher levels of business activity, expand and provide impressive growth for our exhibitors," said DWTC Director General, Mubarak bin Fahad.

The 7th edition of the Motorshow recorded an unprecedented growth of 82% in the number of visitors over the previous edition.

"Automobile sales in the region have been buoyant largely due to the collective result of the last two years of higher oil revenues of the regional economies including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar among others and this robust outlook has proved to be a major factor in our success in attracting more automobile manufacturers, customisers and tuners to participate in the show as well as more buyers," Mr. bin Fahad stressed.

Releasing recent figures collated by Auto Strategies International Inc., who participated at the Motorshow, Mr. bin Fahad said, the outlook for 2004 and beyond looks bright. "There are currently almost 3.5 million passenger vehicles in use in the GCC which has a population of 31.5 million and there is a great potential for new vehicle sales in these countries."

Motor vehicle sales in the first six months in the UAE itself have gone up by 17% over the same period in 2002 with the highest percentage change in the small and medium cars segment. Announcing the January to June sales figures for small, medium, large, luxury and sports car segments for 2003 Mr. bin Fahad said, "As many as 27,888 new vehicles have been sold in the first six months in the UAE, 62,041 in Saudi Arabia (up by 2%), 5,353 in Qatar (up by 38%), 5,303 in Bahrain (up by 15%), 18,293 in Kuwait (up by 23%) and 11,277 in Oman (up by 29%)."

He noted that the collective growth in this segment for the entire GCC was a healthy double-digit figure of 18%.

"We see a very strong potential for the Motorshow to develop in the future and we will continue to improve on the show and add new facets to attract more exhibitors and visitors," Mr. bin Fahad remarked. 

This edition of the Motorshow, which has grown phenomenally since the last edition, reflects this trend with a growth of 45% in the net space sold between 2001 and 2003 reaching a figure of 24,000 square metres this year. The number of manufacturers also grew by a significant 23%.