TAIPEI CYCLE SHOW | IN BRIEF
President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan (left) opened the show this year, while the event itself was celebrating its silver anniversary (right)
Taipei tops 6,000
International visitors hit their highest number yet at Taipei Cycle Show 2012. Jonathon Harker takes a look at some of the stories that emerged from the international bike event…
LAST YEAR’S Taipei Cycle Show was overshadowed by the tragic events in Japan caused by the tsunami. The shocking human cost of the disaster, which started just days before Taipei Cycle 2011 began, understandably took precedence over industry-level concerns, which included a short fall in visitors advised to avoid the region. One year on, 2012’s Taipei Cycle
Show saw a rise in visitors and exhibitors alike. According to official stats there was a 15 per cent increase in exhibitors (reaching 1,092). The number of booths at the show increased too, up 7.5 per cent to 3,288. Official visitor numbers saw international attendees up 13.1 per cent to 6,448, from 88 countries. Chiefly, visitors from China made up the majority of attendees, followed by Americans, South Koreans and Germans. The UK was the tenth on that list, sharing the spot with Australia.
Award winners This year’s show was the event’s 25th. The show organisers marked the
6 BIKEBIZ APRIL
SKS’ Spaero Aluminium hand pump was among the winners of the inaugural Taipei Cycle Show Awards
anniversary with the launch of its first Awards, in conjunction with iF. Seventy-four products won Taipei D&I Awards, whittled down from 207 entries, with five Gold Awards granted to the most acclaimed. Among the winners were Tern’s Verge X10
folding bike, Brompton’s Toolkit and Dahon’s Metro bike. SKS also scored a win for its Spaero aluminium hand pump. The pump has an extendable hose under the dust cover, using a screw duo head for use on all types of valves. Other winners included MSC Bikes, for the Blast Carbon bike. The Blast Carboflex rear suspension system features a rigid rear part allowing for fast acceleration without loss of energy, the firm says. Dealers interested in getting one of the award winning bikes will have to move fast, however, as the bike will have a limited production run due to the costly manufacturing process of each frame, the firm says. The frame, complete with telescopic seat, press fit BB30, anti-collision chain stay, will be available in late March/early April. Taipei Cycle returns in 2013, from March 20th to 23rd, at Nangang Exhibition Hall & TWTC Hall 1. There’s more on Taipei Cycle 2012 on
BikeBiz.com:
http://tinyurl.com/86pv9jg
OPINION
“THE SHOW has been as successful as usual for us; our priority is to get quality time with our distributors and perhaps to meet some prospectives for countries we do not yet supply – top marks on both counts for us at Taipei this year.
The sales and marketing team of three
were there with three designers and our logistics manager, and those four have been as busy as usual, getting progress on important product development initiatives and some supplier arrangements. I haven’t had the time to really pick up on
key trends emerging at the show, if any… there does seem to be less chatter about the cost of raw materials and overall our customers’ only gripes have been the longer- than-usual winter. What I have noticed is that the footfall over the first three days has been noticeably down on last year; before the public days the show has been noticeably quiet. What makes this so surprising is that last year’s show saw many Japanese visitors and exhibitors and Germans (warned off by their government) stay away in the aftermath of the tsunami, yet this year feels so much emptier than then. Perhaps people realised they didn’t need to attend these shows? It’s not just my perspective or that of several trade contacts; even the man heading up the German brasserie here says it’s the quietest show he can remember. This doesn’t affect our interest or the
rationale for being here, but that’s the trend of Taipei 2012 for me – a fall-off in visitors.” Emerson Roberts, sales and marketing director, Brompton
BIKEBIZ.COM
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