The Diplomat
King Philip VI and Queen Letizia and the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, yesterday presided over the inauguration of the International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR 2022), coinciding with the official visit of the Caribbean leader to Spain and with the prominent presence of his country as a guest “partner” of the fair.
The Dominican president arrived in Spain this past Monday to carry out an intense agenda of activities and work meetings within the framework of FITUR, which is being held in Madrid until January 23. On Tuesday, Abinader presided over the presentation of the Dominican Republic’s tourism offer to more than 200 travel agents, tour operators and hoteliers, in which the Spanish Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, participated, and in which he recalled that Spanish businessmen represent 70% of hotel investment in the country. He also visited the district of Cuatro Caminos, one of the areas most populated by Dominicans in Madrid.
Yesterday began with Abinader’s participation alongside the King and Queen of Spain in the official inauguration of FITUR, which made him “the first president to head” this event, according to the Dominican Presidency. At the Fair, the King and Queen and the President toured the fairgrounds, visiting the stands of Galicia, the Canary Islands, Madrid, Turespaña, Iberia, Paradores, Jordan and Portugal, among others.
The visit of the King and Queen to the Moroccan stand was significant, in a new gesture by the Monarch towards the neighbouring country, following his words last Monday at the reception for the Diplomatic Corps, in which he advocated a new relationship between Madrid and Rabat.
The visit concluded at the stand of the Dominican Republic, where a typical folkloric dance and a fragment of the song Dominicano soy (I am Dominican) were performed and the work of a master cigar roller was observed.
At the end of the tour, Abinader made a statement to the press in which he thanked the King and Queen “infinitely” for the opportunity given to the Dominican Republic to be the “main host of this fair” and affirmed that his country’s “special participation” in FITUR will translate into “new business that will improve the economy and, consequently, the quality of life of Dominicans”. The King then offered a lunch to President Abinader at the Zarzuela Palace.
The International Tourism Trade Fair-FITUR is the premier annual event for world tourism professionals and the leading fair for inbound and outbound markets in Ibero-America. This year FITUR occupies eight pavilions at the fairgrounds, where all the autonomous communities are represented. In total, the fair brings together around 100 countries with 70 official representations, led by the Dominican Republic, which this year is the “partner country.
The 2021 edition of FITUR, which was postponed to May because of the pandemic, was attended by 5,000 companies and 55 countries, with more than 62,000 attendees – 42,000 professionals and more than 20,000 visitors. To these must be added the figure of more than 40,000 digital visitors, thanks to the first hybrid edition of the fair. The previous year, in January 2020, before the official start of the pandemic in March, the main fair organized by IFEMA achieved in its fortieth anniversary the highest number of attendance in its history in the exclusively professional days, with 150,011 participants from 140 countries. That year the fair brought together 255,000 visitors, 918 exhibitors, 11,040 companies and 165 countries and regions, with an international participation of 56%.
Today, President Abinader will participate in a breakfast organized by the Dominican Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the UNWTO, in which Zurab Pololikashvili will also participate. At eleven o’clock in the morning, he will be received at La Moncloa Palace by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. He will be accompanied by the Administrative Minister of the Presidency, José Ignacio Paliza, and the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, as well as by the Dominican ambassador accredited in Spain, Juan Bolivar Díaz.
At the end of this meeting, the President will move again to the FITUR headquarters, where he will hold several working meetings, together with Minister Collado, at the Dominican stand. Later, he will hold separate meetings with the main Spanish hotel chains established in the Dominican Republic, and at 6:00 p.m. he will be received by the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida. Luis Abinader will return to his country on a commercial flight on Friday, January 21, after participating in a breakfast offered by the Dominican Ministry of Tourism to journalists attending FITUR, among other events.
