THE region’s travel trade is gearing up for the first major event on the industry calendar: the International Tourism Trade Fair, Fitur, being held in Madrid between January 31 and February 4. Over 12,000 exhibiting companies, 150,000 participating professionals and 96,000 visiting members of the public are expected to attend.
Looking for business at the event are some 45 companies from Egypt will be at the event, including El Gouna and Taba Heights, Watania Tours, the Conrad Cairo, Dahab Travel, Estrella Tours, Jolie Ville Resorts as well as representations from Starwood, Sonesta, Oberoi and other hotel chains. While Lebanon has yet to announce a susbtantial participation, 15 Syrian companies are hoping their presence at the event will bring in European tourists. This is besides participation from such regular attendees as Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.
Joining them are 19 companies from Dubai, the only Gulf destination to send through a strong representation. These include Alpha Tours, Bin Majid Tours, Jebel Ali International Hotels, Grosvenor House and Dnata.
All will benefit from a number of new measures to enhance the professional appeal of the fair even further including more stringent access surveillance, employing an exhaustive visitor filter to guarantee that only members of the industry are able to enter.
Thus, throughout those three days devoted to the trade, Fitur will refuse access to those under the age of 16 years and will require all visitors to provide proof of their professional status, including those who attend the event with invitations, exchanging them for a fair pass prior to entry. Furthermore, in order to boost professionalism at the fair, a number of one-day passes and invitations have been created, in addition to the traditional permanent passes.
These new measures, which will be implemented by all participants at Fitur, are designed to ensure that this effective marketing tool achieves maximum results.
Furthermore, the fair organizers have strengthened two useful instruments on the Web (www.fituronline.com), that will boost trade contacts between visiting professionals and exhibitors: the Trade Meeting-Point and Your Meetings Manager, whose purpose is to facilitate online appointments between the two sides, optimizing their time management and attendance at the event itself.