The International Tourism Trade Fair, FITUR 2004 has already started to prepare its twenty-fourth edition, that will take place between…
The International Tourism Trade Fair, FITUR 2004 has already started to prepare its twenty-fourth edition, that will take place between 28th January and 1st February 2004 at Feria de Madrid. For the first time, the show will take up IFEMA`s entire exhibition centre, thanks to the growth forecast in the international sector, which will be laid out in a new manner. Another of the new ideas for the next edition is the holding, within the extensive conference programme, of the First World Conference on Communications in Tourism, organised by the World Tourism Organisation, WTO.
FITUR`s growing external scope allows a greater international participation to be anticipated in the next edition. This forecast will provide an improved distribution of the foreign companies and institutions in the different geographical areas of the world. Therefore, Hall 4 will host exhibitors from Europe, North Africa and the Near East; While Hall 2 – previously the location of FITUR CONGRESOS, which moves to Hall 1, will hold the offer from Asia, the Pacific and the rest of Africa Hall 6, as it has until now, will hold the American offer, including South America, the United States and Canada.
The rest of the fair`s distribution in sectors, which will occupy a total of 150,000 gross square metres of exhibition space, will not be changed. Therefore, Halls 8 and 10 continue to house the Spanish companies, including transport companies, wholesalers and tour operators and hotels (Hall 8 will also be used for international hotel chains and professional associations); Halls 3, 5, 7 and 9 will accommodate official Spanish bodies and organisms (Spanish regions, boards of trustees, town councils and councils) and FITUR RESIDENCIAL will once more be in Hall 3, with a qualified presence of land developers, builders, real estate agents and financial, promotional and marketing bodies.
This redistribution, particularly referring to the international area allows the offer to be rationalised, helping professionals in their visits and making their presence at the fair more advantageous.
Visitors also have the opportunity of seeing in depth the growing specialisation of tourism, thanks to the specialised sections, which, over the past few years, the show has been creating. The Spain`s Meetings and Incentive Travel Workshop, FITUR CONGRESOS (26th and 27th January); the Residential Tourism Exhibition, FITUR RESIDENCIAL; the section of FITUR KNOW HOW, the Spanish Tourism Know-How Exhibition and FITUR ACTIVO, the Active Tourism Exhibition, are showing the most qualified and up to date products on offer in their respective fields.
Communication in tourism
As regards the technical conferences, at the same time as the fair`s commercial activity, next year will incorporate as an important new item the first World Conference on Communications in Tourism, TOURCOM, organised by the WTO. This Conference, which will be held on the 29th and 30th of January, in the North Convention Centre, will bring together tourism agents and the Media, to debate about how efficient communications on the subject of tourism can help with the growth of one of the most important economic sectors in the world.
In addition to the crisis communications, which will take priority, topics such as the role of the Media in tourism, the success of promotional campaigns, the creation of destination trademarks, public relations as opposed to advertising, promotion as opposed to sales, new, digital means of communication, trans-cultural communications and responsibility in tourism communications will also be covered. The WTO will take advantage of TOURCOM to launch its worldwide campaign Tourism enriches, aimed at making the public aware of the economic influence of tourism on the different regions. Likewise, the Conference will establish a Communications Network, formed by representatives from the press and the tourism sector and which will help to establish the tourism communications targets in the future.
Furthermore, FITUR`s organisation, which has been joined by the new Commercial Manager, Lourdes Sierra, is preparing new improvements in services for visitors and exhibitors. One of the measures that will be adopted is the mailing of the FITUR Passport, by Internet, to professional visitors who pre-register using this means, therefore, making this arrangement easier and taking advantage of the discounts on transport and accommodation included in this document.
Likewise, a strengthening of the circulation potential of the fair`s Catalogue is planned, using a larger run and free distribution, in CD-Rom format, to all the professionals participating in the next edition. This idea is aimed at promoting a highly useful, year-long work tool for all tourism professionals.
The improvements in the services, particularly in the new technologies, help to give a stamp of quality to the fair. On this subject, Internet has become one of FITUR`s most valuable tools over the past few years. In the last edition, the web site FITURONLINE.COM registered 12 million visits, almost half of which were from abroad. In addition to this, it was used by 5,241 Spanish professional visitors and 1,873 foreign ones, for pre-registration, out of the total of 15,169 who registered before the fair.
The International Tourism Trade Fair, FITUR 2004, will open its doors exclusively to professional visitors between 28th and 30th January (from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.); during the weekend (31st January and 1st February) it will be also open to the general public. The fair will remain open until 8.00 p.m.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
