VisitAberdeenshire will be attending the world's second largest travel show with VisitScotland next week (w/c 20 January).
The Destination Management Organisation (DMO) joins Diageo, Interopa Holidays, Tierras Altas Escocia and Viajar por Escocia.com at the national tourism organisation’s stand for FITUR 2020, taking place in Madrid from January 22 – 26.
FITUR is an international platform for the tourism industry to develop new markets and identify and attract new partners and distributors. Businesses can meet large numbers of Spanish consumers alongside international buyers predominantly from Spain and Latin America.
At its 2019 staging the event surpassed its participation record with 10,487 companies from 165 countries and regions, 142,642 trade visitors and 110,848 visitors from the general public.
At last year’s event, VisitScotland organised 60 trade meetings as well as 300 trade meetings for its five stand partners. The national tourism organisation’s stand received over 1600 enquiries while each stand partner received over 670 enquiries.
In 2018, Spain was Scotland’s fifth largest source market measured by number of visits. Total visits by residents of Spain grew by more than two-thirds to exceed 200,000 while total nights nearly doubled from 2017.
The travel trade provides essential intermediary channels that allow consumers to find inspiring Scotland products that meet their needs and VisitScotland works closely with them to provide the information and tools they need to create packages and encourage visitors to choose Scotland as a destination to visit.
Travel trade events like FITUR are valuable platforms and routes to market for Scottish tourism businesses and VisitScotland supports these businesses to ensure they utilise the opportunity and help grow tourism sustainably.
Riddell Graham, VisitScotland director of industry and destination development, said: “FITUR is one of the world’s leading travel trade fairs and a fantastic opportunity for Scotland to showcase itself on a global stage. I’m delighted we are being joined by five outstanding groups who we will work with over the five days to encourage visitors from Spain and all over the world to visit our country.
“The impact of tourism goes far beyond the holiday experience. It is vital to Scotland’s economy, reaching every corner of the country, creating jobs and bringing economic and social change.”
Chris Foy, VisitAberdeenshire chief executive said: “We’re proud to represent the North-east with our VisitScotland colleagues at this year’s FITUR event in Madrid. Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire have seen a recent uplift in travel trade business from the burgeoning Spanish market - a recognition of both the quality and capacity of great Scottish visitor experiences in the region. We look forward identifying further business opportunities at this year’s show.”
For more information about Fitur 2020, go to www.ifema.es/en/fitur
To learn more about VisitScotland’s Travel Trade activity go to www.visitscotland.org/events/industry-events/travel-trade
To find out more about VisitAberdeenshire go to www.visitabdn.com
