Spain: Fitur To Be First Major Experience Of Safe International Mobility
All public authorities will unite to hold the trade fair in May, which seeks to relaunch tourism with an emphasis on safe travel. Fitur will be a global showcase to analyse such initiatives as health passports, tourist corridors and diagnostic testing at origin and destination.
Fitur 2021, in its special edition entitled ‘Tourism is back’, has been confirmed to be held from 19 to 23 May and will be the first major safe international mobility experience in Spain.
Representatives from all public authorities and bodies involved in this trade fair gathered at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism to confirm their commitment to hold this great international tourism trade fair, which seeks to relaunch tourism at a global level and consolidate Spain’s position as a proponent of safe tourism.
The Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto; the Chairman of the Executive Committee of IFEMA, José Vicente de los Mozos; the Chairman of IBERIA and of the Fitur Organising Committee, Javier Sánchez Prieto; the Councillor for Culture and Tourism of the Regional Government of Madrid, Marta Rivera de la Cruz, and the Delegate for Tourism of the City Council of Madrid, Almudena Maíllo, have confirmed the necessary support to make Fitur a great platform to boost the tourism sector and travel, committing the resources necessary to make the event a safe forum from a health perspective and to offer a digital window to the world.
According to the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, “holding Fitur is good news because it allows us to show the world that Spain is synonymous with a quality, safe destination. Fitur will also be a global showcase to debate such initiatives as health passports, tourist corridors, diagnostic testing, etc., and will also be a milestone for the tourism sector to approach 2021 with optimism following the arrival of vaccines that offer a horizon to reactivate the sector”.
One idea stressed by the Chairman of the Executive Committee of IFEMA, José Vicente de los Mozos, is that “we will focus all our efforts on shielding the holding of one of the main tourism trade fairs in the world as is Fitur, on which the different players in an industry that needs to speed up its recovery are pinning their hopes in May, and which has shown that now more than ever it is a great driver of the economy. At IFEMA, we have all the protocols in place and the right conditions to ensure that this trade fair will be held under the maximum standards of health and safety”.
Within this scheme of things and with the aim of ensuring the utmost safety of all those attending Fitur and of defining an ultra-safe space to host the largest event of the global tourist industry, the representatives of IFEMA have explained that, as well as the obligation to take a PCR test at origin and a rapid test in situ, a protocol has been developed that contains all the measures necessary for organising the flows of attendees and their mobility; establishing controls on capacity, social distancing, the elimination of direct contact through a digital register, and the incorporation of cutting-edge technology to ensure health and safety and the counting of people attending, and particularly on air renewal in the pavilions.
As regards this last aspect of ventilation, the attention paid to minimise the risk of contagion in the air through climate control systems should be underlined. All of the IFEMA pavilions have a ventilation system that guarantees 100% of the air comes from outside, and are capable of renewing all the air in a pavilion in little over 20 minutes, maintaining a comfortable temperature at all times which is necessary to develop this activity.
At present, Fitur 2021, which has been recognised by the government as an Event of Exceptional Public Interest, has already commercialised 70% of the surface area reserved at IFEMA, with more than 41,200 net square metres.