DOMOTEX Middle East 2007 reports 22 per cent increase in visitor turnout

269 exhibitors (an impressive 12% increase on 2006) from 37 countries conducted business with trade professionals from 92 nations, representing a tremendous 30% upswing on the 2006 geographic footprint, firmly establishing DOMOTEX as one of the largest international trade shows in the Middle East in just two years.

"Hands down, DOMOTEX Middle East, in only its second year, has become the most important international show for flooring in the region. This year, the whole show was on a grander scale, with many major deals completed and important relationships sealed before the close of the first day alone," said Susanne Klaproth, Director DOMOTEX exhibitions.

"Feedback from new exhibitors indicates that they have met many first-time buyers," said Klaproth. "This proves that there are so many products and services on offer underlining DOMOTEX Middle East's position as the region's most comprehensive flooring event covering all segments of the industry."

"The geographic catchment of the event demonstrates a particularly healthy turnout from the GCC, the Middle East, with Iran, India and Pakistan among the top visitor groups. The turnout from Europe has been particularly strong from the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. We've even seen visitors from as far away as Australia."

Attendees had the perfect opportunity to see thousands of product lines under one roof, many never seen before in the region and meet first-time exhibitor representatives from Cyprus, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Norway and Poland. In addition to the country pavilions from Belgium, China, India and the USA, this year's show also welcomed the country pavilion debuts of Afghanistan, Austria, Germany and The Netherlands who are looking to return in 2008.

Jan van Dijk, Sales Manager, Vifloor Non Wovens BV said "We made the decision to join the Modint organised Netherlands Pavilion at DOMOTEX Middle East 2007 to familiarise ourselves with the regional market and attempt to join the Emirates in its growth. We have achieved that and more, as we now have a good understanding of the regional market, and have received nothing but high quality decision-makers to our stand, with a positive outcome resulting from most."

The show proved once again to be a great place to write orders with the majority of the exhibitors already planning to return in 2008. Dubai-based wood flooring specialist Alomi reported excellent returns at the show with more orders to follow.

"This year, as usual, was an excellent show. We have easily made US$1 million dollars on the stand alone during our three days at DOMOTEX Middle East and this is just the tip of the iceberg as we are still in talks with the many, many quality visitors that came to our area. I have collected about 300 business cards and each one is an extraordinary business opportunity to explore," said Simon Braschler, Middle East Sales Director, Alomi.

Assad Ahrali, Deputy Managing Director of UAE company MEGA Carpets was also upbeat about the shows ability to generate on floor sales and longer term business prospects. "We have already sold almost 10 containers and it seems this is only the beginning. Also, on our first day, we met with customers who are looking to create long term working relationships with us. We are looking forward to coming back next year."

"Such is our confidence in the DOMOTEX Middle East brand, which increased our business by fifty per cent following last year's inaugural show, that we quadrupled our 2007 stand size, and plan to book as soon as possible for 2008, as we have updated our knowledge of current industry trends and received an enormous amount of existing and potential clients to our stand from across the region" said Masoud Mahmoudi, General Manager, Fibril, Dubai.

Many international exhibitors commented that DOMOTEX Middle East delivered the right quality of buyers essential to extending their business interests across the Middle East.

"I came to DOMOTEX Middle East last year looking for a distributor, and succeeded. This year I came to make contacts with interior designers and architects and things have gone well. The GCC is one of our biggest potential markets and DOMOTEX Middle East has been a good place to make contact with the high profile clients we are looking for," said Pascal Betten, Commercial Director, MID Carpets, of The Netherlands.

Antonius Tuschen and Andreas Ridder, Managing Directors of German wood flooring company OSMO who were making their DOMOTEX Middle East debut shared this view and commented "We have been looking to expand our business in the GCC and came to Dubai in 2006 to see which exhibition we would use as a platform for our products. After looking at major exhibitions held here, we decided to come to DOMOTEX Middle East 2007 because of the quality of visitors it had to offer."

The 2007 edition of DOMOTEX Middle East also offered visitors and exhibitors more added value and educational content with the most successful features line-up to date.

Creative Flooring, the live flooring installation demonstrations in hall 5 proved an incredibly popular new addition to the show. Hosted by expert instructors from the Flooring Industry Training Association (FITA), United Kingdom, architects, project developers, interior designers and installers discovered the latest mixed material floor covering installation and cost-cutting techniques, and received direct feedback and practical advice from the friendly expert instructors. The showcase proved so popular, FITA have plans to return to the region on a more regular basis.

"There is a massive demand in the Middle East for qualified flooring specialists and FITA's ambition is to establish a training academy in Dubai to transfer international best practice and standards" according to John Roberts, Director of FITA.

Visitors and exhibitors to the show were also invited to vote for their favourite design from the 11 winning carpets from the prestigious Carpet Design Awards 2007 presented at DOMOTEX HANNOVER in January. With a chance to win lunch for two at the world famous Burj Al Arab, the stunning display of some of the most inspired traditional and contemporary hand-made carpets was a run-a-way success. Sebastian Ghandchi, Publisher, HALI and Modern Carpets & Textiles Magazines and the driving force behind the awards has confirmed that the design best liked by DOMOTEX Middle East 2007 visitors is "In the Woods" by the company Floor To Heaven, Germany.

Whilst celebrating another highly successful show, Deutsche Messe Hannover, one of the world's top three trade fair companies, which organises DOMOTEX Middle East, said it is now looking to take the event to "the next level."

"Industry feedback from independent exhibitor and visitor surveys conducted at the show are extremely positive and we are currently reviewing the recommendations made by the trade to enhance the show experience and ensure that DOMOTEX Middle East continues to reflect the enormous advances the flooring sector is making in the region," said Klaproth.

Final audited results from the show are being processed and a detailed breakdown of 2007 statistics will be published shortly with the results from the numerous on-site exhibitor and visitor surveys.

The event, which is the largest new-to-market trade show in the history of the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) when launched in 2006, returns to DICEC in 2008 between June 16 -18. DOMOTEX Middle East is held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President, Department of Civil Aviation, Government of Dubai, Chairman of the Emirates Group and Chairman of the DICEC. The show has the official support of the UAE Contractors Association and the Association of Professional Interior Designers (APID) in the Gulf region.