The King and Queen inaugurate Fitur in pandemic conditions

King Felipe and Queen Letizia inaugurate the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) a year and a half after the last edition was held. They were accompanied by the President of the Community of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida, as well as the Vice-President Carmen Calvo and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto. This edition has had a large institutional representation, with the presence of the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, and foreign tourism ministers from Albania, Brazil, Georgia and Mexico, among others.

During the opening tour, the King and Queen visited some of the stands, including those of Georgia, NH, the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Iberia, Turespaña, the Community of Madrid and the Madrid City Council. Their visit began in Hall 10, where they saw several artistic performances from different countries. The opening ceremony closed with a performance by Ainhoa Arteta, who sang a song by Javier Limón in homage to Spain.

This special edition, entitled "Tourism is back", is an important lever to promote and encourage the recovery of the market, and to boost and revitalise Spain's tourism image. For this reason, the Government declared Fitur an "Event of Exceptional Public Interest" at the beginning of the year in the General State Budget.

Moreover, this is the first world summit to be held in person since the beginning of the pandemic, so its success could serve as a precedent for other subsequent fairs and reinforce Spain's image as a safe tourist destination.

This forty-first edition will be a hybrid event, half face-to-face and half online, in which the sector will present the range of tourist destinations and security measures on offer. There will be 55 countries with a physical presence and seating capacity reduced to 50%. In addition, despite the pandemic, this year the fair is being held with the participation of 150,000 professionals, 261,000 participants and more than 11,000 exhibiting companies from 165 countries and regions. Important players such as the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Morocco, Colombia, Israel, Uzbekistan and Palestine are joining this important tourism fair.

The Dubai World Expo 2020 will also be present at this new edition of FITUR, which will serve as a letter of introduction to its future attendees. From 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022, Expo 2020 Dubai will offer all participating countries new opportunities for business, collaboration and cooperation.

It will also be the first of its kind to be held in the MEASA region (Middle East, Africa and South Asia), in the United Arab Emirates. José Vicente de los Mozos, President of the Executive Committee of IFEMA Madrid, said at the presentation of this new edition that "the most important thing is the health guarantees". "We want to boost the recovery of the tourism sector and for this Spain must be conceived as a safe country". The IFEMA Madrid exhibition centre has ventilation systems installed that renew the air three times an hour, which helps to prevent the spread of pathogens through aerosols.

The sanitary measures for accessing the site are different on the 19th, 20th and 21st, which are for professionals, than those for the weekend, when the fair is open to the general public. The stated reason for this distinction is that the general public hardly spends any time in one place, and do not usually have meetings, so the ordinary measures they propose should be sufficient. During the weekend there will be standard protocols such as mandatory use of face masks, control of interpersonal distance, the presence of gel dispensers and temperature control. Tickets for the general public will be sold online through IFEMA's website. 

During the professional days, in order to gain access to the venue, participants must be accredited online and provide a negative PCR or Antigen Test, which must be uploaded to the platform. This step is essential as only visitors who have uploaded their negative test to the platform will be admitted; those arriving with the certificate in hand will not be allowed to enter. Likewise, being vaccinated does not exempt from the need to present a negative COVID test.