The Vicenzaoro January, described by organisers the Italian Exhibition Group (IEG) as The Jewellery Boutique Show, drew to a close on January 23, 2019 having attracted over 35,000 visitors, about the same number as a year earlier. However, the organisers said that this year’s show saw a signification rise in the number of overseas buyers, who accounted for 60% of the total number of visitors at the show.

Giving details IEG said that there was a 12% rise in visitors from Germany / Switzerland / Austria; 11.75% increase in visitors from UK and a 10.5% rise in visitors from France. Northern Europe also recorded a 10.5% rise in numbers while visitors from Spain rose by 9.6%. Similarly, visitors from UAE and Saudi Arabia were up by 24.2%, those from Russia by 10.4% and those from Kazhakastan by 46%.

The year also saw a number of specially-invited premium buyers including 400 invited from the main markets by the Ministry of Economic Development - MISE and ICE Agency in addition to the 2,000+ managed directly by IEG.

While releasing the figures, the organisers said that the presence of independent designers in the Design Room, as well as the increasingly successful trend of big brands presenting new collections and a new space at the trade show, the Fashion Room, a workshop dedicated to fashion jewellery, the seminars held at the Vicenzaoro observatory, TRENDVISION Jewellery + Forecasting all gave impetus to the show.

Another key contributor to the success of the show was the holding of T.GOLD, a global exhibition of technologies for the jewellery sector.

Other events that contributed to the overall success were the series of digital talks dedicated to digital innovation, organised in collaboration with Confcommercio Federpreziosi; sessions dedicated to precious stones held in collaboration with the Italian Gemmological Institute; a seminar on Responsible Sourcing for the  jewellery industry coordinated by CIBJO; the XXI edition of the annual meeting of European gemmologists (FEEG - Federation for European Education in Gemmology), curated by the Italian Gemmological Institute and the Jewelry Technology Forum, now in its 15th edition in collation with Legor Group Spa.