MADRID, Feb 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Organisers of the World Mobile Congress said they have cancelled the world’s top mobile trade fair due to fears stemming from the coronavirus Covid-19, following an exodus of industry heavyweights.
The mobile fair is one of the biggest events worldwide to be cancelled so far owing to the virus that has killed more than 1,300 people to date.
The announcement came after the GSMA, the mobile trade association that organises the annual show, held a meeting to decide the fate of the event that had been planned to run in Barcelona on Feb 24-27.
“The GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event,” a statement said.
It said the decision was made with “due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country,” adding that host city parties understood the cancellation.
Just hours before the meeting took place, Vodafone, Nokia, Deutsche Telekom, Britain’s BT and Rakuten of Japan had pulled out, following in the footsteps of Intel, Facebook, Cisco and China’s Vivo.
The annual Barcelona-based congress normally draws more than 100,000 people, including between 5,000 and 6,000 participants from China, organisers say.
The decision is certain to be a major blow for Barcelona, as the huge trade show was forecast to bring in almost 500 million euros, organisers said.
The cancellations began on Feb 4 when South Korea’s LG Electronics, which occupies one of the largest spaces at the show, said it was pulling out to “remove the risk of exposing hundreds of LG employees to international travel … as the virus continues to spread across borders”. — NNN-AGENCIES