Fair visitor numbers flat

Published: 23 July, 2008

Visitor numbers at the 2006 LIWSF were around 300 down on 2005, at 18,811 over the three days.

The overseas audience, however, was the strongest to date, representing 29% of the total. The number of visitors who attended for more than one day increased by 6%.

Feedback on the fair has been generally positive, with the only major complaint the failure of the air conditioning on Tuesday.

Show director James Murray, commented: As soon as the failure of the air conditioning was detected mid-morning on the Tuesday, we worked with the team at ExCeL to rectify the problem. Once they had identified the affected area, the engineers were able to mend it when the exhibition had closed for the day.'

Alison Power of New Zealand Winegrowers said her producers were generally happy with the fair. I think there was a feeling that the number of visitors from the US was up, which is obviously an important market for them.'

Sophie Waggett of Wines of South Africa said her members felt the quantity of visitors was a little down but that the quality was very good, especially from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia'.

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