In a statement last week, Busworld, the Belgian Bus show organiser, announced the cancellation of its event, planned for later this year in Brussels, Belgium. The statement began: “With pain in our heart, Busworld decided to cancel Busworld Europe 2021”.

It continued: “For the Busworld Team, the event is more than just business, it’s a passion. When the customers are happy, Busworld is happy. Literally everything was done to avoid having to take this decision.

But reality cannot be changed. And reality at this moment is that Busworld cannot fully guarantee its exhibitors that the visitors will join the show in October in the usual numbers. Because there is no way of predicting travel restrictions. And there is no way to measure the willingness to travel of the visitors with the negative impact of Covid-19 on their business results for more than a year now. There is too much uncertainty.

Although the prospects were positive in the beginning of the year, the promised speed of the vaccination campaigns , especially in Europe, were not met at all. And since the preparations to participate to a trade show start at least six months before the actual show takes place, there are too many question marks for our exhibitors.

So, even though it would have been perfectly possible from a practical side to organise a trade show with the utmost respect for everyone’s safety, the bullet was bitten and a sensible but tough decision was made: Busworld cancels its 2021 edition. And this in the year of its 50th birthday, a very black page in its history, no doubt. The decision was made with full support of Busworld’s main exhibitors. They respected and agreed with the decision and all assured that they will be present at the next edition in 2023.

Some smaller, alternative events might take place in the ‘Busworld period’ of October 2021. So keep an eye on all Busworld communication.”

Mieke Glorieux concluded: “Our thoughts go out to the whole industry, who has suffered severely for over a year now. We said it before and we keep saying that we are all in this together! Today we bring you bad news, tomorrow is another day. We are agile. And we’ll be back!”

The next edition of Busworld Europe will take place in Brussels from 7 to 12 October 2023.