2023 Geneva motor show cancelled

The Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS), one of the world’s most iconic and famous motor shows, has been canned for the fourth year in a row due to lingering pandemic-related risks and “uncertainties in the global economy and geopolitics”, said event organisers.

“We have done everything possible to ensure that we could host GIMS 2023 in Geneva in February,” event chairman Maurice Turrettini said in a statement.

“The enhanced event format and project had been very well received. But in the end, the risks overweighed the opportunities.”

All is not quite lost, however, because the GIMS’ inaugural sister event in Doha, Qatar, will at this stage still go ahead – just obviously not in Geneva.

Branded officially as the ‘Geneva International Motor Show Qatar’, the Doha event was originally conceived as a bi-annual support event to the main Swiss act, with the two editions designed to complement each other by being at opposite ends of the year (February for Geneva, November for Doha).

GIMS CEO Sandro Mesquita said that while everything that could’ve been done to save the Geneva edition had been done, the ducks just didn’t line up.

“In these uncertain times, many brands are not in a position to commit to participating in a show in Europe in the winter,” he said.

“After assessing all the elements, it has become clear to the foundation that the 2023 Salon cannot take place in Geneva as planned.

“We are now fully focused on organising GIMS in Doha and look forward to confirming the dates and format of this ground-breaking event with our partners at Qatar Tourism shortly.”

The 2020, 2021 and 2022 editions of the Geneva show were all thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as were plenty of other high-profile international motor shows including the New York, Beijing, Detroit and Paris shows – just to name a few.

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