The 2021 Geneva Motor Show has been canceled due to the “financial consequences” of this year’s event to obtain the ax, but also due to concerns about the pace of the COVID-19 pandemic. The foundation behind the fair announced on Monday that a “majority” of exhibitors recently said it “probably would not participate in a 2021 edition and would rather have [the next show] in 2022 “instead. The show itself is now for sale as well.
The Geneva Motor Show was the first major auto event to be canceled outside of China earlier this year, with organizers going offline about two weeks before the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. It would have been the 90th edition of the show, which is often home to the industry’s most outrageous and flashy commercials. The show attracted over 600,000 visitors in 2019.
The Committee and Council of the “Salon International de l’Automobile” Foundation, which presents the program, had been seeking financial help from the local government in the months after the cancellation. The Canton of Geneva offered a loan of 16.8 million Swiss francs (about $ 17.6 million). But the foundation was not happy with the terms of the loan, including a show taking place in 2021, and rejected it. The foundation is now trying to sell the rights to the Geneva Motor Show to Palexpo SA, the group that owns and operates the convention center that hosts the event.
All the other major car shows were canceled or switched to digital events after the decision to scrub the Geneva Motor Show, and several automakers have since held their own online revelations in the absence of these big gatherings.
