Visitor numbers were up at the Carrefour International du Bois timber show in Nantes, France, last week and exhibitors said the event provided further evidence that the international wood trade is emerging from recession.
According to spokesperson Cecile Touret, preliminary figures show a 5% rise in attendance at the exhibition from June 2-4 over the last event in 2008.
“Our first calculation is that we had well over 10,000 people – and the Wednesday and Thursday, in particular, were very, very busy,” she said. “We haven’t analysed the statistics fully yet, but exhibitors I’ve spoken to also had the impression we had an increase in the proportion of foreign visitors too – and in 2008 they made up 15% of the total.”
Exhibitor numbers this year were around 500, she added, with nearly a quarter from outside France.
