Never known for its modesty ( nor accuracy where attendance numbers are concerned ) ANCMA , the Italian government backed motorcycle trade association that operates the annual EICMA ' Milan Show ', hailed its 110th year , 81st edition in November as its ' Summa Cum Laude ' Edition . We here at International Dealer News wouldn ' t go that far . It was good , sure . But the age profile of the largely Greater Milan urban catchment area from which most of the 600,000 claimed visitors are drawn appears to include ever fewer visitors of motorcycle license holding age . EICMA may well be a uniquely popular ( and uniquely Italian ) enthusiast-fest , but , even after all these years , hundreds of potential and prior exhibitors still appear to regard it as unproven in terms of its effectiveness as a profitable business expo . The issue of the attendance age profile is something that features like the ' Gaming Zone ' will not improve - it can only worsen such issues . At present there is no convincing research on the percentage of motorcycle game players that go on to be riders . From the P & A and G & A exhibitor

community perspective it is riders who can buy now that liquidate their show investments , not a demographic who may or may not contribute to sector balance sheets at some unknown time in the future . There is increasingly widespread scepticism that the P & A and G & A vendor sector is being bled by ever increasing costs at time of

intense pressure on marketing budgets simply to subsidise the ANCMA membership ' s marketing activity . Unlike northern European shows ( such as INTERMOT before it imploded ), the EICMA visitor base has never exactly been a high mileage cohort .

Regardless of the ( theoretical ) eternal question of who the ' Milan Show ' is really for , and who actually makes money from it , remains as much the elephant in its eight enormous rooms as it ever has been . Technically speaking there were ten halls of the Rho Fiera Milano pressed into action this year , but two of them were mostly Chinese component and vehicle vendors ( especially EVs ) in exhibitor footprint terms , and even they weren ' t full . Net of indoor e-bike test ride space and other ' hall fill ' features , it remains unlikely that , from a mainstream internal combustion engine OEM and aftermarket hard part P & A and soft part G & A exhibitor perspective , in reality is much more than a four- or five-hall exhibition when it comes to genuine and genuinely viable hard-core dealerfacing aftermarket business opportunities . That still makes it the largest annual motorcycle industry business opportunity in the world , one that gives ANCMA an impressive stat-fest opportunity . The 600,000 attendance

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