BaselWorld, the international Swiss watch and jewelry fair, has dropped its heavily promoted "One Show, Two Cities" plan and says its 25 national pavilions will return to Basel, Switzerland, for the 2004 show, slated for April 15–22.
"BaselWorld will be held exclusively in Basel in the future," said a July 9 statement by the show's owner, MCH Swiss Exhibition. MCH will create a sixth exhibition hall for the national delegations' "Hall of the Universe," close to Swiss Exhibition's current exhibition center in Basel.
The "Two Cities" plan was designed to provide more space in Basel's show halls for its prestigious watch and jewelry brands by shifting the national delegations to an exhibition center in Zurich, Switzerland.
However, the April debut in Zurich of the "Hall of the Universe" (about 800 firms) was derailed when the Swiss government banned Asian exhibitors (about half the