The International Tourism Trade Fair, which is organised by IFEMA, will stage its thirty-third event in Madrid between 30th January and 3rd February 2013, featuring some high levels of representation on the part of the international tourist industry. As is traditional, this fair will inaugurate the international trade fair circuit for the travel industry, presenting a series of different projects designed to boost business within the field of tourism.
With still three months to go before the staging of the fair itself, the response on the part of exhibitors in the different exhibition areas at FITUR has been highly favourable, with 92% having already confirmed their participation at the event. In this respect, the fair will provide the very best forum for participants to be able to promote and market their products.
The trade exhibition will be complemented by a comprehensive programme of conferences, expert panels, day events and activities aimed at boosting competitiveness within the tourist industry. In this sense, amongst the main new features at the fair, participants and visitors will come across FITUR KNOW-HOW&EXPORT, a new area promoted by FITUR, ICEX and SEGITTUR that enables tourist companies to present their most innovative solutions within the field of integral tourism management. Know-how placed at the service of the tourist industry constitutes a key factor when it comes to meeting the demands of today's market and, in this respect, the fair will present the latest innovations regarding aspects such as marketing, sustainability, infrastructures, financing and e-commerce, amongst others.
Along the same lines, the fair will once again host the staging of a series of established initiatives such as INVESTOUR Africa, which will promote Spanish investment in tourism projects on the African Continent, with a view to achieving a sustainable tourism model that serves as an engine for development.
Furthermore, INVESTOUR for the Americas will place Latin American participants in touch with professionals from the rest of the world, whilst the Third Hosted Buyers Workshop is aimed at exhibitors who are interested in promoting their products with professionals from other continents. In this edition, the Hosted Buyers Programme will be organised based on the proposals made by the exhibitors themselves, with those professionals of greatest interest to the industry being invited to the fair.
Being well aware that tourism is founded on sustainability policies, FITUR will host a new staging of FITURGREEN, which will strengthen its range of ideas regarding energy saving and efficiency under the heading of hotel management. In addition, in order to cater for demands within the industry and traveller needs, the fair will present a new staging of the monographic exhibition, FITURTECH. Thus, under the heading of NextTravelGeneration, this section will present the latest new features regarding technology applied to tourism.
Alongside its monographic sections and specialised conferences, FITUR will also present a series of special and distinct exhibition areas, such as FITUR LGBT and RECEPTIVO ESPAÑA, thus enabling professionals to locate the products and services most closely linked to their business area and interests within a single section.
In short, once again this year, FITUR will inaugurate the tourism calendar and, in this respect, all of the leading players within the worldwide tourist industry will come together in order to present their latest projects, their latest strategies and the latest market trends over a period of five days. The tourist year will, thus, kick off with a series of working strategies and trends that are likely to continue throughout the entire year.
The last staging of the fair brought together some 210,877 participants and 9,506 companies from 167 countries and regions.
For further information:
Helena Valera, International Press
Tel: +34 91 722 51 74
Fax: +34 91 722 57 93
E-mail: evalera@ifema.es