This year, FITUR is taking place from 20 to 24 January at IFEMA.
Tamara Fariñas. Madrid
This year, the International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR in its Spanish acronym) of Madrid continues the trend of its last editions with a great presence both of Latin American companies and Latin American Governments, although, in this edition, the Ibero-American Union of Tourism Professionals (UIPT in its Spanish acronym) will not have its own stand.
A new edition of FITUR starts today and it does it with significant Latin American presence. Argentina, with a recently formed government, will show the ‘roadmap’ that the new Minister of Tourism, Gustavo Santos, intends to follow, which will focus on the promotion of the international market, as well as in the creation of alternative products to show other tourist appeals.
Mexico goes in the same direction. This year, it has been strengthened by its position in the international ranking of the World Tourism Organization, which places it among the 10 most visited countries of the world. Gastronomy will also be a key aspect among Latin American destinations, since, this year, the Fair will show, for example, the Ruta del Café of El Salvador, or Paraguay’s rum, the typical drink par excellence.
Guatemala will present itself as the “heart of the Mayan world” and will emphasize its main attractions, without forgetting the historical heritage of cities like Antigua, as its spectacular natural landscapes and the “Maya Trek Carmelita El Mirador”, a view to the maya world through El Mirador, a city 600 BC. containing the tallest pyramid in Mesoamerica.
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Panama will try to consolidate its number of tourists from Spain
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In this edition, Panama focuses on continuing the conquest of the Spanish tourist, in view of the improvement in its figures last year: in September 2015, the country had received 24.7% more of Spanish tourists than in the same period of the previous year. For its part, Haiti repeats in the fair with the objective of changing the perception others have of this country, emphasizing its recent hotel offer —with inaugurations such as that of the Decameron Hotel, in Côte des Arcadins, or that of the Marriott de Cabo Haitiano Hotel—.
This year, the Ibero-American Union of Tourism Professionals will not have its own stand, despite of having requested one as they did for previous editions. However, the organization does not know the reason. The UIPT sent a letter to FITUR’s director, Ana Larrañaga, asking for the reasons behind this negative answer, although they never got a response. Nevertheless, they will attend the fair as professionals. “Finally, last week, we received an e-mail from FITUR’s coordinator giving us professional passes for the members of our organization”, the organization’s president, José Luis Lorenzo, told The Diplomat.
