FITUR remains one of the fairs with a strong professional commitment to international tourism, with international presence up by 8.9% during the first three days of the fair alone.
Its improvement in figures by 1.8% in the general invitation to professionals equals 142,642 participants, and also continues bringing strength to the tourism business as the Madrid event takes context.
In the last few hours before the fair on Sunday, it was estimated that more than 100,000 members of the general public visited the fair over the weekend, which added to the number of professionals in attendance reached a total of over 253,000 attendants.
FITUR 2019, the international tourism trade fair, closed its 39th edition with impressive attendance figures in what has also been the largest and most international edition to date. The final estimation of more than 253,000 participants highlights the growth in international presence over the first three days of the fair, with 142,642 participants from all over the world registered. There was also a notable increase of 8.9% in international presence.
Coinciding with the excellent health of the tourism sector both here in Spain and at an international level, FITUR, was once again officially opened by the King and Queen of Spain at IFEMA, which yet again demonstrated its representational capacity at an important edition that’s put Madrid in the spotlight of the entire international community. This was shown by the presence of 886 stand-holder exhibitors, 8.3% more than in 2018, and more than 10,487 companies from 165 countries and regions (+2.5%) throughout the 9 halls at Feria de Madrid, which cover 67,495m2. This equals a movement of people that has generated an economic impact in Madrid of approximately €325 million
Globally, domestic participation increased by 6% this year and international presence, which represents 55% of the total share at FITUR grew by 11%, which was led by the increase in the African (15%) and European (13%) share.
The high level of business activity concentrated at FITUR’s professional conferences led to 9150 B2B meetings with international buyers, the result of meetings organised by FITUR at its Workshop Hosted Buyer, the B2B Investour and FITUR Health programmes, the new networking space, FITUR MICE, which was added this year, in collaboration with GSAR Marketing, and specialises in incentive tourism, meeting and business travel, 49,711 appointments requested in the digital agenda and thousands of bilateral meetings held at the stands themselves.
FITUR also received close to 700 different authorities, including ministers from 62 countries, ambassadors and representatives from all over the world, presidents and councillors from all the Spanish Autonomous Communities, and more than 7500 journalists for 68 countries to provide news coverage for the fair.
As for the new additions to this edition, the Dominican Republic was more than impressive as the FITUR Country Partner with 32 companies at its stand, along with the high profile of the “Lo tiene Todo” brand, which resulted in hundreds of business meetings, especially with travel agencies and tour operators.
The presentation of FITURNEXT OBSERVATORY was another key feature at the fair and will now act as a platform for the next three years identifying, analysing and disseminating tourism models that have a positive impact on visitors’ experiences, the lives of residents, the development of destinations and the balance of the planet. Other firsts were the new monographic section FITUR SCREENTOURISM, focussing on connecting the tourism industry with the world of film and FITUR IS MUSIC, an alternative urban music festival that’s part of FITUR FESTIVALS which hosted two nights of live music on January 25 and 26.
Regarding technology and smart tourism, Fiturtech 2019 and Fitur Know-How & Export brought together cutting-edge solutions and proposals, FITUR GAY (LGBT+), which was developed under the slogan “50th Anniversary of Stonewall, New York” and FITUR HEALTH all stood out for the increase in international presence, and the latter for the global development of health tourism.
FITUR2019 has now also consolidated its influence in the communication strategy on social networks for tourism fairs by reaching more than 84 million social network users. The fair had almost 15,000 active users posting on Twitter with the hashtag #FITUR2019.
The next edition of FITUR will take place from January 22-26, under the new management of María Valcare, who takes over from Ana Larrañaga. After 19 years as the director of FITUR, Larrañaga will now join the IFEMA Steering Committee and lead the entire Fair Business area.
