The Mayor of Vigo and President of the Organising Commission of the World Fishing Exhibition-Vigo’09, Abel Caballero, met recently with the Executive Committee in order to be updated on the latest advances of the show which will be held in Vigo from 16-19 September.
During the meeting, Alfonso Paz-Andrade, President of the World Fishing Exhibition Executive Committee, explained that with only forty days to go until the Exhibition opens, a major international response is already being registered.
Consequently, Abel Caballero has announced that, thanks to the extensive international promotion and marketing campaign carried out in order to counteract the effects of the world economic crisis, "Vigo’09 will be the best World Fishing Exhibition ever". He stated that companies from Russia, Malaysia, India, North and South Korea, China, Lithuania, Turkey and Thailand, among others, will display their products for the first time at the World Fishing Exhibition. This is an indication of the significance and magnitude of the event. "This means that the World Fishing Exhibition 2009 incorporates exhibiting countries representing approximately 1.5 billion people and, probably, this has never happened before in an exhibition," he said.
Companies from Iceland, China, Denmark, France, Holland, Faroe Islands, Italy, Morocco, Norway, United Kingdom, Senegal, Sweden and Taiwan will take national stands. "Celebrating the WFE is a challenge in the difficult economic times we are living", stated Mr Caballero. He added that "important exhibitions are being cancelled all over the world and some really important ones usually celebrated in Spain have faced a decrease in participation or have also even been cancelled".
The increased level of international participation in the exhibition is also reflected in the number of visitors who have already registered online at the World Fishing Exhibition website. According to Alfonso Paz-Andrade, "The organisers expect that the attendance of national and foreign visitors will also beat records set in 2003. In fact, top executives of big national and international companies have already announced their intention to visit". He also announced that a higher attendance of foreign professional visitors is expected because "crises make people be selective, and they visit those exhibitions with a clear international significance. Obviously, the exhibition to be held in Vigo is a worldwide referent".
Meanwhile, the Mayor of Vigo praised the capacity of Vigo to organise such a magnificent event and recognised that "it is an unrivalled concentration of economic, administrative, research and political activity. There are not many business opportunities of such magnitude".
