The Diplomat
King Philip VI and Queen Letizia yesterday presided over the inauguration of the 41st edition of the International Tourism Trade Fair-FITUR, which will be held until May 23 at the Feria de Madrid and which represents, according to its organizers, “the most important event of those held to date” because it will mark “the recovery of the tourism sector” after the COVID-19 crisis.
FITUR is the premier annual event for world tourism professionals and the leading fair for inbound and outbound markets in Ibero-America. This year’s event, which is being held with strong health security measures (mandatory PCR tests at origin, rapid on-site tests, controls on the flow, mobility and capacity of attendees, security distances) brings together more than 5,000 participants from five continents, with the presence of all the autonomous communities, companies and destinations from 55 countries, in addition to 37 official representations. In addition, this edition will feature the participation of professionals from 79 nationalities through its new digital platform, FITUR LIVEConnect. In the 2020 edition, held just two months before the declaration of the state of pandemic alert, FITUR broke its record for participation, with 11,040 companies from 165 countries and regions, 150,011 professionals and 111,089 visitors from the general public.
Upon their arrival at the Juan Carlos I Trade Fair Park, the King and Queen were welcomed by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto; the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili; the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; and the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. Also in attendance were the presidents of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijoo; Andalusia, José Manuel Moreno; Cantabria, Miguel Angel Revilla; La Rioja, Concha Andreu; Region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras; Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page; the Canary Islands, Angel Víctor Torres; and the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol. “People are eager to travel and we want FITUR to be the restart, because the conditions are in place for it”, declared Reyes Maroto via her Twitter account. “Tourism stopped right after FITUR 2020 and restarts at FITUR 2021”, stated Zurab Pololikashvili via the same social network.
Among those in attendance were also Georgia’s Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili; and Georgia’s ambassador to Spain, Ilia Giorgadze. Precisely, the King and Queen began their tour of Pavilion 10, where they visited the Georgian Meet Connet Zone exhibitors. They then visited the pavilions of NH, Aena, Renfe, Adif, Enaire and Puertos del Estado. At the Iberia stand, the King and Queen were greeted by representatives of the company’s most active employee groups during the pandemic. Once the tour was over, the King and Queen were greeted by the FITUR Organizing Committee and by the tourism ministers attending the inauguration.
During the opening ceremony, José Vicente de los Mozos, president of the Executive Committee of IFEMA Madrid, thanked the King and Queen for their support for this edition of FITUR, “an event that is the most important of those held to date by our International Tourism Trade Fair”. “FITUR 2021 represents the first major international fair to be held in Europe this year, and all eyes are going to be on Madrid and our country”, he continued. “Tourism is a strategic sector and, as such, an essential part of the reactivation of the economy; that’s why we wanted to give this edition of FITUR the label of Special Tourism Recovery”, he added. “FITUR has arrived at the ideal time to send this message to the world: tourism is back, and it’s at FITUR”, he concluded.
For his part, Javier Sánchez Prieto, chairman of the FITUR Organizing Committee and president of Iberia, recalled that “we have been through the worst crisis in our history, but we are here to stand up together and help drive the recovery of the Spanish and international economy, and to help the world get back on track, resuming travel as one of the distinctive elements of our society’s progress”.
