King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía opened this year’s Fitur with a minute’s silence for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
22.01.10 - 14:30 -
The economy might not be at its best but repesentatives of the Andalusian tourism industry sent out a message of optimism at the opening of the Fitur tourism fair in Madrid on Wednesday. The president of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, said he was confident that the strengths of Andalucía as a tourist destination would enable the region to recover the three million visitors it lost last year. Some 170 countries have joined the quest for tourists this week in Madrid.
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía opened this year’s Fitur with a minute’s silence for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Later during their brief tour of the fair the royal couple spent some time at the area Fitur has devoted to Haiti and greeted the Haitian Ambassador Yolette Azor-Charles.
The urgent need to boost the tourism industry in Spain was clear from the huge support this year’s international fair has been given by top dignitaries on a national and regional level. This is in contrast to the absence of stands representing smaller resorts and tourist municipalities that have had to strike Fitur off their budgets for this year.
The Junta de Andalucía president’s recipe for recovering lost visitors includes, he said in his opening speech, developing sustainable tourism, which, he explained, basically boils down to improving on what the Andalusian tourism industry already does very well.
In an attempt to maintain the optimistic tone the regional head of Tourism, Luciano Alonso, managed to find a ray of light in the negative tourism figures for 2009 in that the visitors who have come have stayed a little longer than average and have spent a little more money. Alonso stressed the importance of the Spanish tourists to the Andalusian industry and announced new promotinal campaigns for Easter and the summer.
In the middle of a recession, at a Fitur with fewer stands and fewer tourism professionals than usual, the optimism, however moderate, of the authorities made up for this year’s simpler, less elaborate stands. There’s a lot of work to be done, but the first day of Fitur was proof of a general consensus to put on a brave face and get on with things.
