iser and site operator Palexpo was able to an nounce good results But on the other it was already clear that the figures for 2020 and 2021 would be much lower see the inter view below For 2019 the report shows sales of CHF94 million stable compared to the previous year This also greatly benefited the region around Geneva The economic revenues generated by 91 events at Palexpo yielded direct and indirect spin offs for the canton worth CHF588 million even this amount has remained more or less stable Events at Palexpo attracted some 1 3 million visitors and over 6 200 exhibitors selling around one million square metres of gross space over the year Beyond the pure numbers there were further successful achievements to report According to Palexpo s managers recent de velopments particularly in the field of watch fairs underline the company s flexibility and responsiveness the Geneva site is already a strong rival to Basel Constant communica tion with the target groups is a strong guar antee for this In order to progress in a glob al and interconnected environment we also maintain close and regular links with the various players in our sector confirms Claude Membrez Faced with a wide range of uncertainties en couraging solidarity helps us ob serve market trends argues the managing director of Palexpo SA And there was another suc cessful achievement to celebrate last year A pioneer in the field of sustainable development Palexpo garnered its second ISO certifica tion It had gained its first ISO 20121 certification in 2018 and last year the company was certified to ISO 20121 2012 standard This second standard adds transparency and readability to sustain able management decisions in particular by allowing for an external evaluation of adopt ed measures Palexpo describes this as recognition of twenty years of work on im plementing the principles of sustainable de velopment within the company The crisis put an abrupt end to this development At present Palexpo can only yearn for the end of the pandemic We hope that the world will restart is what Claude Membrez wishes for 2021 www palexpo ch PB 22 TradeFairs Internation al 3 4 2020 INTERNATIONAL Hope for 2021 and the vaccine Claude Membrez managing director of Palexpo in Geneva on the impact of the Coronavirus crisis the challenges it poses and automotive activities How has Covid 19 affected the Swiss economy and what does this mean for Palexpo As in all European countries Switzerland has been hit by the health crisis lockdown un employment and financial crisis A few months ago we could imagine an improve ment of the situation but nothing is clear right now Palexpo has been closed since the end of February We were able to get aid and loans from the Swiss government We hope that a vaccine will allow us to restart our activ ities in early 2021 What does this mean for your company s financial results We lost over 75 per cent of our turnover in 2020 And the forecast for 2021 is not good How is Palexpo dealing with this and what are the main challenges The greatest challenge for us is to keep the events on the calendar Organisers change their minds according to the pandemic situ ation Another challenge is to keep the staff motivated The organiser of the Motor Show has postponed the event to 2022 Is Palexpo going to organise its own automotive event as I have heard We do not want to lose the automotive mo mentum Therefore we are preparing an event for 2021 We are optimistic about mak ing it happen in 2021 with manufacturers who wish to communicate Als größte Herausforderung erscheint uns dass die Ver anstaltungen weiterhin im Kalender bleiben The greatest challenge for us is to keep the events on the calendar Ph ot o P al ex po

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