NEC crowds: latest

Attendance at this year’s NEC motorcycle show has finished just down on last year with the early boom in crowds droping off towards the end of the week.

On preview day (Friday 28th) 8234 came through the doors – up 5%. On Saturday (29th), the first fully public day, 19,252 attended – up a massive 25% on 2004.

And Sunday’s figure was also up – with 21,013 checking out the new bikes – up 14% on 2004.

Monday’s rise wasn’t as impressive (Nov 1) but it was up 3% on last year with 13,417 attending. There was a minor fall on November 2 with 11,662 through the doors – down 2% on last year – and Wednesday dropped a bit with 13,932 people turning up to see all the new bikes – 9% down on last year.

Thursday (Nov 3) was 6% down on 2004 – with 12,362 attending. Friday (Nov 4) was slightly better at only 5% down but as the weather worsened Saturday’s (Nov 5) attendance plummeted to 19,777, 15% down on last year.

A total of 164,399 people visited the show leaving it just 1% down on last year but the organisers were still happy considering all other major shows have finished massively down this year.

Finlay McAllan, Managing Director of Motorcycle Industry Exhibitions (MCIE) said: “We’re extremely happy with how the show has gone this year, despite the slight fall in overall attendance.

“We have had really good feedback from visitors who have enjoyed the brand new features, the many world launches, the BSB awards and guest appearances.

“Ideally we would have liked to see the figures up but the feedback we have had has been that once again the overall quality of visitors and business done at the show has been extremely high.

“We have also had very positive feedback from exhibitors, highlighting the noticeable improvement in features and quality of visitors, now regarded as more important than attendance figures. “

See links right for all our news from the show.

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