Record foreign visitors at leather week

The fourteenth edition of the Spanish international leather week, held in Madrid, closed its doors on Sunday March 28 recording 20,003 industry professionals visiting the show. The leather week is made of two separate shows, Modacalzado - the international footwear fair and Iberpiel Marroquineria - the international leathergoods trade fair. The growing international importance of the fair has been translated into an increased presence of foreign visitors. Attendance by professionals from outside Spain has grown by 5%, in relation to the edition held in March 2003, and now represents 15% of the total visitors. In total, professionals from 67 different nationalities visited the show. The 'Semana Internacional de la Piel' took place March 26-28 at Juan Carlos I exhibition centre in Madrid. A total of 771 companies from all over the world presented their footwear and accessories collections for the autumn-winter 2004-2005 season. This was an increase of 9.2% in relation to last year. The show occupied 35,198 net square metres of space between Modacalzado and Iberpiel. The constant growth that the fair has shown in the past seven years have led the organising committee to make a redistribution of the halls where the fair will be staged for the next edition which is being held between September 24-26, 2004. The international leather week normally occupies halls 2,4,6,8 and 10 of the Juan Carlos I exhibition centre. Modacalzado was located in halls 4,6,8 and 10, while the exhibitors of Iberpiel were found in halls 2 and 4.