K show attendance down, but only slightly

Dusseldorf, Germany — Barring a last-minute surge of visitors, it appears that attendance at the K show will not match figures of earlier shows. K officials say the attendance through the first four days of the show was down about 5 percent compared with K ’98. The drop is being attributed to slashed travel budgets or reticence to travel following September’s terrorist attacks.
For most people at the show the drop has hardly been noticeable, as aisles have been jammed with gawking show-goers throughout all 17 halls of the Messe Centre. One exhibitor in the Canadian pavilion said the show has been as good or better that previous years.
“The attendance is down, but the quality is up,” he said, noting that the number of significant leads generated at the show has increased.