The 42nd International Tourism Fair in Madrid (FITUR) ends today with optimism for the recovery of the sector this summer. After three days focused on businesses and suppliers in the sector, the fair has been opened to the general public this weekend, with its last day today.
The Canary Islands presented themselves with open arms in a year full of hope at the 2022 event, in which they expressed their confidence in overcoming the sixth wave of Covid and returning to the normality prior to the pandemic, and, above all, the recovery of tourism numbers and arrivals to the islands.
The President of the Canary Islands Government, Angel Víctor Torres, who was unable to attend the event in person because he tested positive for coronavirus, did so via video in which he stated he is convinced that 2022 will be “the year of the comeback”.
"During 2022, once this wave is overcome, we will be able to reach a tourist occupancy of 90% as we did in 2019, and that is something that is very achievable," he said.
The Minister of Tourism, Yaiza Castilla, who was in charge of presiding over the opening ceremony of the Canary Islands stand in Torres’ absence, admitted that “although the first half of 2021 was almost lost with a summer that still had low international demand, the year ended with the recovery of more than 50% of tourism activity due to a ‘push’ of domestic and national tourism.”
The stand was visited during the inauguration of the fair by the King and Queen of Spain, who were very interested in the situation of the Islands, and in La Palma in particular.
The Canary Islands have participated in this year’s event with a stand of 1,425m2 that has stood out for its luminosity, with some excellent graphics and audiovisuals projected onto state-of-the-art screens, of landscapes and elements of the Islands that convey the uniqueness of the destination.
It was designed so that the mappable LED strips, which are integrated into the floating roof, represent the colours of the ocean, vegetation, and the volcanic landscape to project a perfectly synchronized iconography.
3.7% MORE FLIGHT SEATS THAN IN 2019:
During the first three days of the fair, working with companies in the travel and tourism sector, the Canary Islands Government highlighted the "good expectations" of air connectivity for the summer season (April to October), since 10.3 million flight seats are booked by airlines, which is 3.7% more than in the summer of 2019, before the pandemic.
Likewise, the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, also highlighted in his presentation that “if everything works together in 2022, we can register a good tourist season. Not only do we have a good perspective in terms of quantity, but we are also verifying a substantial improvement in quality, both in the air seats that connect with the destination and in the profile of the tourist”.
In addition, the Government’s Tourism Department, and the four employers’ associations and unions of the tourism sector in the Archipelago, have also agreed to begin the process of adherence to the Glasgow declaration, which is an urgent global call for commitment to a decade of climate action in tourism, so that the sector in the islands contributes effectively to climate action. The signing of this agreement means that they will present a climate action plan within 12 months and put it into practice.
