The 18th edition of DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR took place on March 22-24, 2016 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, gathering 1,303 exhibitors from 39 countries and attracting 50,398 trade visitors from more than 110 nations. An increase of 9.3% in the visitors’ number compared to last year, shows clearly an upward trend on the audience’s preference to the leading international flooring show in Asia Pacific. Both domestic and international exhibitors were highly satisfied both by the professional visitors’ turnout and their high quality, resulting in an outstanding onsite rebooking percentage of 62.8% on exhibiting space for 2017.
“DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR 2016 was another successful event which reconfirmed the leading position of the show in Asia Pacific. In particular, the increased number of both exhibitors and visitors were a clear indication of the confidence that the flooring industry players have on the show as the best platform to do business in the region“ said Mr. Martin Folkerts, Director of Global Fairs at Deutsche Messe, one of the organizers of the show. “We have got very positive feedback from our exhibitors who have especially highlighted the high quality of the visitors and buyers for this edition. The show keeps increasing on both size and quality and we are committed to continue in the same pace for the future editions.”
Visitors from all around the globe discovered new trends, technologies and innovations in 12 halls covering a gross area of 140,000sqm and took part in more than 30 conferences, events and seminars regarding flooring practices, applications and modern day challenges, presented by world-renowned flooring experts, professionals and designers.
The first North American distributor delegation, consisting of 12 of USA’s most prominent names in the industry, visited some of the biggest domestic exhibitors’ manufacturing sites right before the show and met with their Chinese and Asian peers during the show. The delegation was assembled with the cooperation of the Floor Covering Institute LLC, Floor Covering Weekly and The North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors (NAFCD).
An international delegation of bamboo flooring buyers was also assembled within the frame of the 2016 Bamboo Flooring Hosted Buyer Program, held in cooperation with the Anji Commercial Bureau. The buyers’ delegation was welcomed by the regions officials on the first day of the show while they toured the Anji Bamboo Pavilion which took up the entire E3 Hall. Right after the show, the delegation spent three days in Anji accompanied by DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR representatives to visit local manufacturing sites and discuss further business opportunities with the local producers.
The sector of the Handmade Carpet was highlighted during the show with the Handmade Carpet Hosted Buyer Match-Making Event, a B2B casual networking event, held on the first day of the show at the Design Carpet Salon in Hall W5. Handmade carpet exhibitors participating to this event carried carpets from India, Pakistan, Iran, Nepal and Afghanistan, while the hosted buyers who joined the program were both from China and abroad.
Events such as the World Flooring Forum, co-organized by DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR and the China National Forest Products Association shed a light on the Chinese wood flooring market’s status quo, while the China International WPC Development Forum 2016 gathered domestic and international leaders in the fields of WPC production, raw material supply, engineering, construction and research, setting up a communication platform where the industry’s investments, developments and innovations were extensively discussed.
With environmental protection and Innovation being the primary driving themes of the show, programs such as the GreenStep Asia Awards and InnovAction were designed to showcase new products that support these principals.
It is worth mentioning, as a last note, that this successful 2016 edition of DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR provided an insightful experience to all attendees. Exhibitors had a chance to meet professional trade visitors ranging from flooring retailers and distributors to architects, interior designers and property developers in a larger scale than any previous edition. They enjoyed events catered for all kinds of flooring products, practices and technological innovations, gaining important knowledge and information for the upcoming year.
The preparation for the 19th edition has already started and DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR will be coming back on 21st to 23rd of March 2017 with one more international flooring event that can’t be missed.