After a corona-imposed two-year hiatus, the megashow was back on, and what a resurgence it was. After I landed on a morning flight, I jumped on the bus that went from the airport to the expo complex. The route went almost all around the complex in a clockwise fashion before we got to Eingang Nord, or the North entrance, which was my stop.

“Despite the difficult general conditions, boot 2023 has written a success story. We would not have dreamt of this outcome. boot has finally reached calm waters and is once again firmly anchored in its Düsseldorf home port. The successful comeback has demonstrated that trade fairs ‘made in Düsseldorf’ have an international appeal,” stated Wolfram Diener, President and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf.

In recent weeks, various countries in Europe have applied travel and event restrictions to help prevent the spread of this new version of the Covid-19 virus. 

Following a meeting of the Minister Presidents of the federal states in Germany on 21 December 2021, the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) banned large events in January 2022. This includes boot Düsseldorf, the largest boat show in the world. 

It is with a heavy heart that we have to say goodbye to holding boot in January 2022. Wolfram N. Diener, CEO of Messe Düsseldorf

Dr Stephan Keller stated "We had had hoped that the pandemic situation in January would allow Boot to be held under strict hygiene conditions. But in the end, it is only consistent to do without large public fairs such as Boot in order to contain the spread of the omicron variant. Even before the country's ban, I agreed with the management of Messe Düsseldorf not to take an unjustifiable risk and to cancel boot if necessary."

"The continuing high level of infection and the fact that the end of the lockdown is not foreseeable for the time being make a resumption of trade fair operations at the end of April appear increasingly unrealistic", states Wolfram N. Diener, CEO of Messe Düsseldorf.

"We have reassessed the situation with our partners and jointly decided to cancel boot 2021 early. Our priority is the health and planning security of our exhibitors, visitors and service providers. All activities will now be focused on the successful staging of boot 2022."

“At the present moment in time, we cannot reliably gauge whether a trade fair can be implemented in January 2021. This is due to current infection rates, ongoing travel restrictions and existing legal provisions which do not permit trade fairs to be held currently. In consultation with our boot advisory board and the associations we have selected the new dates in April with caution," Messe Düsseldorf’s CEO Wolfram Diener writes in a press release.

{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/4qxidxZGTDQ.jpg?itok=_dguTCFA","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxidxZGTDQ","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":1},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive, autoplaying)."]}