The Geneva International Motor Show’s (GIMS) organizers announced today that it has opened exhibition registrations and is on track to host visitors in 2022.
The show will be the 91st edition and it will run from February 19 to 27 with press days on the 17th and 18th.
“With the dispatch of the tender packages, we are now officially starting the organization of GIMS 2022,” said CEO Sandro Mesquita. “My team and I can hardly wait to present our concept to the exhibitors and subsequently to the public. We really hope that the health situation and the corresponding policy regulations regarding Covid 19 will allow us to bring it to life.”
Read Also: Geneva Motor Show Organizers Put Show Up For Sale And Cancel 2021 Event
Geneva was one of the first major auto shows to be canceled in 2020 when the Swiss Federal Council announced a decision to ban all large-scale public events in late February. The decision, a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was bad news for the event, whose exhibitors were already in the process of setting up for the show.
The organizers were offered a bailout package, but the terms were deemed too onerous and the show was eventually put on sale and bought by Palexpo SA, which runs Geneva’s largest exhibition center.
Related: The Virtual 2020 Geneva Motor Show Debut List
No exhibitors have been announced at this point but the show’s new owners have promised that the 2022 edition will have evolved from previous years and will be “substantially different.” Exactly what that means has not yet been revealed.
Even before the pandemic took auto shows away, though, they were not in good shape. Automakers are increasingly avoiding expensive shows in favor of smaller events whose news cycle they can control. Whether the Geneva International Auto Show can attract the world’s automakers back with its new format and whether there will be a post-pandemic bump will be interesting to see.
