Cersaie 2024 Brings 95,000+ to Bologna
BOLOGNA, Italy – The Cersaie international tile event brought plenty of attendees here late last month … but not quite as many as the same time last year.
The 41st edition of the show on Sept. 23-27 brought 95,321 visitors, or 4% less than 2023 attendance. Italian visitation (48,226) dropped 6.7% from last year, while out-of-country attendees (47,095) showed only a slight 1% easing from 2022.
Those going through the 15 halls at the BolognaFiere saw goods from 606 companies, including 332 from the ceramic tile sector, 91 from bathroom furnishings and 183 from the installation, raw materials, new surfaces and services sectors.
Vendors contributed to the international flair, with 230 non-Italian exhibitors (38% of the total) from 25 countries.
“Despite the highly challenging international context, Cersaie’s exceptional capacity to attract visitors enabled exhibiting companies to really make the most of their investments,” said Augusto Ciarrocchi, chairman of Confindustria Ceramica. “The exhibitors were particularly impressed by the quality of the visitors present at the show, including distributors, architects and real estate operators.
Ciarrocchi noted that the Italian ceramic industry remains a world leader, although he also cited challenges with aggressive product dumping in Europe “by a number of countries” and “ideologically-driven application of regulations” from European regulators.
“During the exhibition, we had the opportunity to raise these issues with the many representatives of the European, national and regional institutions who were in attendance,” he added
Ciarrocchi also voiced frustration at the strikes of Bologna airport workers and taxi drivers during the first two days of the event. The industrial action harkened back to transport problems last year, when Italian airport-baggage handlers went on strike during the last day of the show. In 2023, taxi drivers and local transit workers also went on strike in sympathy.
“The damage and disruption caused to our visitors posed a serious risk to a competitive exhibition like ours and by extension to the local region as a whole,” he said. “I sincerely hope that a sense of collective responsibility will prevail and such episodes will not be repeated in the future.”
Antonio Bruzzone, BolognaFiere CEO, also expressed disappointment with the strikes.
“Calling a strike on the opening day of such an important event demonstrates a lack of sensitivity towards those who bring wealth to the city,” he said. “Even more frustrating was discovering that even on non-strike days there was a noticeable lack of taxis in circulation, as though the strike were still ongoing.”
The transport slowdown didn’t dim Bruzzone’s view on this year’s show overall, however.
“We are delighted with the success of this year’s Cersaie, which is one of the main highlights of our trade fair calendar,” he said. “The large numbers of Italian and international exhibitors and buyers who took part despite the challenging economic situation once again confirms that this show, expertly organized by Confindustria Ceramica, is an essential event for the market.”
Next year’s Cersaie will be held in Bologna from Sept. 22-26.
