IFEMA has already begun work on marketing and content design for FITUR 2019, the major international tourism event. As always, in their endeavour to adapt it to the needs and development of the industry, it will incorporate important new aspects. These include its timing – 23 to 27 January 2019 – which will again position FITUR in the last week of January, strengthening its capacity to attract professionals from all over the world.
New features and initiatives will also be focused on increasing FITUR‘s sectoral representation, internationalisation and standing, with the aim of providing a dynamic platform which helps generate business opportunities and knowledge sharing and, ultimately, boosts activity in the tourism sector.
With this in mind, the organisational plan for FITUR 2019 includes enlarging the exhibition area to incorporate pavilion 2 at Feria de Madrid. This will provide a centralised area for Tourist Destinations in the Middle East, with the whole of Pavilion 4 set aside for Europe. The rest of the areas will follow the usual layout, with America in Pavilion 3, Africa and Asia Pacific in Pavilion 6, the section for Business, Technology and Global Business in Pavilion 8, the section for Companies and Associations in Pavilion 10, and Official Spanish Organisations and Entities spread across Pavilions 5, 7 and 9.
At the same time, from a qualitative standpoint, FITUR 2019 will continue to work on specialisation, consolidating some of the recently introduced sections, such as FITUR Festivals, alongside the addition of new platforms with significant development potential. One of these is the brand new specific section for film tourism, promoted by the association Spain Film Commission (SFC), which gets its first airing in 2019, in response to growing demand and a rising trend driven by tourists interested in visiting filming locations for popular movies and series.
FITUR 2019 will also feature well-established specific sections which already account for a significant volume of business, including FITUR GAY and FITUR SALUD, as well as FITURTECHY and FITUR KNOW HOW, where technology is spotlighted as an essential lever for growth in the sector and for progress toward the concept of intelligent tourism.
One of the main areas of focus at FITUR 2019 will be knowledge and know-how, best represented through its programme of seminars, which covers every section of the trade fair, as well as its many different activities, organised within the framework of the fair by international organisations such as the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Latin American Conference of Tourism Ministers and Entrepreneurs (CIMET) and INVESTOUR, who will be joined this year by EXCELTUR, with a new programme, and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
With all this, FITUR 2019 is preparing one of its most comprehensive events, in which sustainability, technology and specialisation will again be to the forefront, alongside new concepts, trends and strategies aimed at consolidating and improving the outcomes achieved at last year’s event, which brought together 251,000 participants and played host to more than 6,800 business meetings.