The organisers of CarraraMarmotec, the Italian stone fair in Carrara held at the beginning of June, say the number of visitors this year, in spite of competition from the bigger two-yearly German Stone+tec fair, was only slightly down on the previous year.

They say there were 48,096 visitors in total, including 15,875 from 110 countries outside Italy. There were 862 exhibitors on 551 stands (much the same as the previous year).

The fair benefited from the positive international economy in 2000 that led to a recovery in Italian exports on the traditional markets. Growth prospects look good for both machinery and materials.

North America and the Middle East remain the major markets for Italian products, followed by Europe, despite the decline of the German market.

The machinery sector report significant orders from the United States, Spain, Turkey and China (where there is a strong interest in finishing machines).

CarraraMarmotec aimed to capitalise on the international nature of the market with some special events to bring visitors in. The Carrara stone industry\'s trade association, the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine (IMM), who run the exhibition, organised a range of technical and cultural events.

There was a four-day stone technology training course for architects and managers in North Africa and the Middle East and another on the use of stone in architecture was arranged for a number of professors from Chinese universities.

There was also a presentation on opportunities for the development of trade between Italy and Korea, a presentation of development programmes for natural stone in South Tunisia and an India Day.

The annual Marble Architectural Awards, open to different parts of the world each time, this year focused on projects in southern Africa, South America and Oceania. The award winning architects held seminars to talk about their projects that attracted an international audience of other architects.

This year\'s programme also included presentations on projects such as MARA, ONSET (European network for ornamental stone) and McDur (study on the durability of ornamental stone) involved in preserving ancient stonework.

There was a special section of the show devoted to conservation where Carrara aimed to give a lead on restoring and maintaining the huge wealth of stonework throughout Europe and Italy in particular.

A new trademark was introduced by the stone producers of Carrara during the show, the EQG (Extraction Quarry Guaranteed), certifying the origin of blocks. And a new website was presented (www.isicentry.com) to enable all those involved in the industry to obtain information from the specialists at the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine.

Next year there is no Stone+tec in germany and CarraraMarmotec will be held 29 May to 1 June.

In the meantime, next month (27-30 September) will see Italy\'s other major international stone show, Marmomacc, in Verona.