FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“The 63rd IAA Cars has greatly exceeded all our expectations. The world’s most important trade show for mobility has proved to be a crowd-puller even under very difficult circumstances. We will have around 850,000 visitors at the IAA, far exceeding our own target of 750,000,” stressed Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), at the International Motor Show, which runs until 27 September.

It does not make much sense to use the IAA 2007, which took place during an economic boom, as a guide. “The general conditions have changed completely,” Wissmann emphasized. But even as compared to the record IAA in 2007, the fall in visitor numbers was “only just about half of what we expected.” The drop was mostly due to the fact that for reasons of cost the exhibiting firms were “extremely cautious” when it came to inviting customers to the IAA. “If you look at the general public that buy their admission tickets on the door, you see that attendance has gone down by only 5 per cent. People are just as enthusiastic as ever about automobiles, the halls housing the 100 world premieres are attracting huge numbers of visitors, and some of them are full to overflowing,” Wissmann said. The “regal weather” was also pulling in the IAA guests to the open-air site with its varied program of events ranging from the off-road circuit to test drives.

This distinguishes the IAA from other motor shows that this year have suffered falls in visitor numbers in the upper double-digit range or have even been cancelled altogether.

“The old equation ‘congestion on the roads means a well attended IAA’ lost its validity a long time ago. We have continued to work with the city and the police to optimize the management of parking lots for the IAA, and this time we reserved a sufficient number of spaces right close to the trade show. This has benefited the visitors to the IAA – they have more time for going round the exhibition. Even the police are surprised that everything is going so well,” Wissmann explained. There was more “congestion” in the exhibition halls, he added. All the halls at the IAA were popular with visitors, especially the new Hall 11 occupied by BMW, which forms another major focus in the west part of the IAA.

“Our exhibitors – manufacturers and suppliers alike – are also very satisfied with this IAA, as the stand managers have told me in great and varied detail during my extensive tours. The public is very knowledgeable and interested. And our survey has shown that one IAA visitor in four wants to buy a car in the next six months,” the VDA president emphasized.

The IAA is open to the public until 7.00 p.m. on Sunday, 27 September 2009. Further information on the 63rd IAA Cars is available at www.iaa.de.