IOG SALTEX VISITORS SPEND TO THE TUNE OF A CREDIT-CRUNCHING £1.2 BILLION!

Visitors to last year’s IOG SALTEX will collectively spend around £1.2 billion as a result of visiting the UK’s leading open space management exhibition.

Independent research at the three-day show revealed that:

• Almost 1,000 visitors were from organisations that spend over £1 million each year on open space management products and services
• 410 were from organisations that spend over £500,000
• Nearly 800 visitors spend up to £500,000 each year, and
• Over 1,000 spend up to £50,000.
• The survey also showed that spending power has increased (to an average of £183,000 for each visitor with spending power) compared with visitors to the 2007 show, and that:
• Nearly 70 per cent of visitors to the show had buying power
• 68 per cent of these said IOG SALTEX influenced their purchasing decisions, and 73 per cent considered IOG SALTEX as the most important event for their business, and
• 59 per cent of visitors DO NOT usually see any non-supplier sales representatives.

Also:

• 77 per cent of visitors went to the show to look for new ideas or products – and 84 per cent said it was important to see equipment working in an outdoor environment
• 60 per cent of visitors do not plan to visit any other UK exhibition – and over 95 per cent do not plan to visit any overseas exhibition, and
• 28 per cent were looking for new or alternative suppliers.

The research also reveals that around a third of the audience were new visitors to the show, thus enabling exhibitors to meet thousands of ‘new faces’ every year.

Commenting, IOG SALTEX Sales Director Clare Johnson says: “The figures certainly reinforce that IOG SALTEX is the most important show for the whole of the open space industry – from fine turf and sports surfaces through turf maintenance equipment to outdoor play, for example – and the visitor feedback gives us every confidence that despite the credit crunch the spending trend will continue at this year’s show, which is already nearly 90 per cent sold out.”

IOG SALTEX 2009 will be held on 8-10 September at Windsor Racecourse, Berks, and will embrace fine turf and sports surfaces, turf maintenance equipment, children’s outdoor play and safety surfacing, landscaping, contractors, commercial vehicles, outdoor leisure and facilities management, as well as software and security equipment. The show is attended by open space management professionals and contractors – from groundsmen and greenkeepers through to play officers, architects, designers and surveyors as well as local authority and outdoor leisure facility managers.

Colin Hoskins, Wildish Communications Ltd
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