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12/06/2006
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Fitur 2006 once again offered the tourist industry an excellent forum for business
The fair concluded its twenty-sixth edition with some record figures: 149,91 participating professionals, 12,415 companies and some 842 direct exhibitors.
FITUR 2006, the twenty-sixth edition of the International Tourism Trade Fair, revealed the favourable climate that currently exists within the tourist industry. The fair offered the industry the very best tools and the most profitable forum at which to define its strategies, establish favourable trade contacts, analyzed the sector and, in short, do business. The record participation figures reflected the favourable progress of tourism. Considerable growth is forecast for the next few months, which, in the case of Spain, comes to around 11% of GDP, featuring an increase of 6% compared to the previous year and some 55.6 million foreign tourists. The fair offered professionals the first grand international tourism trade event of the year and an excellent opportunity to gauge the current state of the industry.
FITUR took place at Feria de Madrid between 25th and 29th January 2006. The fair hosted the presence of a total of 12,415 exhibiting companies, a 3.6% increased compared to the previous edition, as well as 842 direct exhibitors (+ 4.2%) from 170 countries and regions, who presented their best products and services within a net exhibition area measuring 87,617 square metres (+ 4.5%). The fair occupied all ten halls at the IFEMA fairground, presenting a gross exhibition area measuring 150,000 square metres.
Throughout its history, this event organised by IFEMA has become one of the leading points of reference for professionals from this important economic sector. The year 2006 edition brought together some 149,791 * participating professionals, whilst also presenting an 11% increase in the number of professionals visiting the fair from abroad. As far as the general public is concerned, the fair welcomed some 96,421 visitors. The total participation figure came to 246,212 people.
Once again this year we might mention the considerable media coverage that was provided for FITUR, an event that brought together journalists from some 59 different countries. In this respect, we might highlight the strong media presence from countries such as Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States. The media accounted for 4% of all participants recorded at the fair.
The figures relating to business and professional participation were equally significant within the various specialized sections of the fair: the seventh edition of Spain's Meetings and Incentive Travel Workshop, FITUR CONGRESOS, an event that presented Spanish products and services to the leading representatives of international demand within this field on 23rd and 24th January, hosted some 4,600 appointments; FITUR ACTIVO featured the participation of 1,670 companies, FITUR KNOW HOW 249 companies and FITUR RESIDENCIAL some166 companies. (Annex I).
Awards
FITUR presents a number of different awards in recognition of outstanding achievements within the tourist industry. The FITUR Jorge Vila Fradera Forum has become the leading point of reference within the field of tourism research, both in Spain and in Latin America. The winner of the Seventh FITUR Jorge Vila Fradera Forum was the unpublished piece of tourism research entitled "Strategic Groups and Their Influence on Unemployment in the Hotel Sector" presented by Enrique Claver Cortés, José F. Molina Azorín and Jorge Pereira Moliner and which applies the management groups tool to the Spanish tourist trade.
Among the award-winning stands at FITUR 2006, we might highlight the following: Japan, Morocco and Mexico, within the countries category; Andalusia, Asturias and the Canary Islands within the Spanish Regions category; and Grupo Transhotel, Iberia and Meliá, under the heading of companies.
With regard to the Eleventh Best Active Tourism Product Competition, the overall winner and winner of the Adventure Tourism Category was the Gliding Station in the town of Loja in the Province of Granada. Within the Nature Tourism Category, the award went to the Solar Weekend in Jaén (a programme aimed at learning and investigating the different possibilities of solar energy in rural areas), whilst the winner in the Cultural Tourism Category was the Eco-Park of Trasmiera in Arnuero, Cantabria. For its part, the International Award went to Nicaragua, specifically, the product "Green Oasis of Matagalpa".
As is traditional, these awards will be presented next June at Feria de Madrid.
Conferences
FITUR provides an ideal business forum for the tourist industry, shaping an event that rests on two essential pillars: the purely commercial dimension of the fair and its role as a forum for training and analysis. In this respect, and in view of FITUR's extraordinary capacity to unite the entire industry, the fair is chosen by numerous professional associations, institutions and bodies to stage their conferences, roundtable debates, press conferences and meetings of all kinds. Thanks to the participation of qualified experts from different fields and the presence of leading authorities, FITUR provides a faithful reflection of the current state of the tourist industry.
In this respect, a number of important meetings took place at FITUR 2006, as the Latin American Conference of Tourism Ministers and Entrepreneurs, CIMET 2006; the seminars organized by the World Tourism Organization, WTO, on "Know-How Management for Achieving Excellence in the Running of Tourist Destinations"; the Sixth Euro-Mediterranean Forum, or the Constitution of the Tourism Spanish Board by the Spanish State Department for Trade and Tourism, among other events.
Furthermore, during the weekend of 28th and 29th January, the days on which the fair was open to general public, visitors were able to enjoy a number of highly colourful and impressive artistic and musical spectacles at the Twenty-Sixth Folklore Festival of the Peoples of the World. This edition featured the participation of Spanish groups from Extremadura, Galicia, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Huesca, Lanzarote, Madrid, Palencia, Pontevedra, Toledo, Zaragoza and international groups from Bolivia, Chile, Israel, Paraguay, Peru, Porto Rico, Tahiti and Tunisia. (Annex II).
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(Источник информации: Ifema)
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