FITUR closed its 35th staging on February 1, 2015 with a record number of participants, having attracted 125,084 professionals from 139 countries and as many as 222,551 visitors in total.

The event experienced a 12 percent growth in international professional visitors and a 5 percent increase in general professional visitor figures when compared to the previous year.

FITUR organizers noted that these figures, together with the optimistic climate observed at the event, create a positive scenario for the worldwide tourism industry. Spain achieved a historic high in international visitors for the second consecutive year, with more than 65 million in 2014, representing a growth of 7.

1 percent (the highest in the past 14 years) as well as maximum spend levels, with 63.094 billion euros.

Also noteworthy is the remarkable Latin American business representation at the show, including several tourism ministers who had the opportunity to take part in CIMET, the Latin American Conference for Tourism Ministers and Businessmen.

At this forum the Spanish Government’s Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Borrego, stated that internationalization is key for Spanish tourism companies, as became evident at FITUR from the next day onwards. Borrego described this event as one of the most important international trade shows in the world and asserted that at this year’s staging there were “very many expectations to do business” for companies in the sector.

Another high-level debating forum was held on that same day, the Spain Global Tourism Forum, GTF, organized by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism and inaugurated by the President of the Spanish government, Mariano Rajoy.

At the encounter, Rajoy indicated that tourism accounts for 9.5 percent of world GDP and so special attention has to be paid to this sector.

More than 5,000 meetings took place in the four FITUR forums that had organized scheduled and personalized B2B meetings between the supply and the demand sides: the fully established Workshop Hosted Buyers and INVESTOUR Africa and those created within the fair’s two new specialized sections, FITUR SHOPPING and FITUR HEALTH. At the inauguration of the 6th staging of INVESTOUR, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, highlighted the relationship between Africa and Spain and placed at the disposal of countries from that continent the Spanish tourism industry’s knowledge and know-how. The forum brought together 380 participants from 52 countries, among them 22 ministers from Africa and the Middle East, 50 Spanish institutions and companies and 10 international (non-African) ones, plus 175 African projects (70 of them Spanish in origin).

FITUR won the El Planeador Award in the category of “Best Trade Show in the Year 2014” for, among other things, its ongoing contribution to tourism and for being a meeting point for all professionals in the industry.

Organizers are already working on the 36th staging of FITUR, which will be held from January 27-31, 2016.