Geneva Motor Show 2023 To Be Held In… Qatar

The Geneva Motor Show used to be a darling of the motoring calendar, with many of the world’s biggest carmakers saving their best product launches for that special week in spring. Struggling to remember it? That’s because it’s just been cancelled for the fourth consecutive year.

Officially called the GIMS (Geneva International Motor Show), the event used to take place in Switzerland, because, well, that’s where Geneva has always been. But, for 2023, the GIMS is taking place in… Doha, Qatar, some 3700 miles away.

Many journalists, influencers and execs would fly in for a day, or even drive down to the Swiss capital for the event. Somehow that doesn’t seem feasible for the Qatar event.

But there are other, far more important issues with the Geneva Motor Show being held in Doha. Qatar is a country that’s often criticised for its human rights record, both in terms of slavery and its hostility towards LGBTQ+ people – homsexuality carries a mandatory prison sentence of at least one year. Gay football fans are worried about going to the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and now car fans and industry names are faced with the same concerns.

“Due to the uncertainties in the global economy and geopolitics, as well as the risks related to the development of the pandemic, the organisers have decided to focus exclusively on the planning of the event in Doha in 2023”, the GIMS committee said. With Covid famously being a worldwide virus, we suspect there are other reasons behind the change of scene.

The car world has effectively shown that it can live without motor shows in the last couple of years; will this be the final nail in the Geneva Motor Show’s coffin?