“F*ck this hysteria!” wrote a frustrated Mate Rimac after the news broke that the Geneva Motor Show has been cancelled three days before it was due to open owing to the increasing fear of the spread of the coronavirus, which has already seen other huge events cancelled.
As Novac/Filip Pavic writes on the 29th of February, 2020, Croatian entrepreneur Rimac was supposed to be one of 180 exhibitors at the Geneva Motor Show, otherwise one of the most important international motoring events, which was supposed to hold its 90th edition this year.
The autoshow was cancelled after the official confirmation of coronavirus now being in Switzerland came to light and the decision by the Swiss Government was to ban all gatherings of more than 1000 people.
Mate Rimac said in a statement that the news had only reached them when they were halfway from Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb to Geneva, and that they had been driving three cars there, and that all the costs of the organisation of that would cost them several hundred thousand euros, which has now gone down the drain.
”The Geneva Motor Show is one of dozens of events on our 2020 calendar, but it’s one of the largest. It requires a lot of production and a lot of things need to be put together for a successful event the size of the one in Geneva: A complete booth/stand, cars, logistics, communication, materials, our team. The organisation has been intensive for the last five months. We’re disappointed with the cancellation because we’ve put a lot of effort, time and money into organising the fair where we needed to present the news and the name for the C_Two. However, in the last few days, everything has indicated that the show will be cancelled. A lot of our industry partners and associates are in the same situation,” Marta Longin, head of public relations at Rimac Automobili, told Jutarnji list.
The Geneva Motor Show director, Oliver Rihs, added that exhibitors would not be able to get their money back. The Rimac Automobili team also travelled with employees of its sister company Greyp Bikes, who were also going there to display their innovative electric bicycles.
According to the fair’s director, cancelling the Geneva Motor Show that draws more than half a million visitors each year will cost the Geneva economy at least 250 million euros.
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