International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR), which is due to take place in Madrid (Spain) from 22 to 26 January, has launched a campaign in the social media for Europe and the Americas aimed at boosting their use as a tool for promoting tourism and fostering closer ties with opinion-leaders within the industry.

 

In view of the staging of its thirty-third event (22-26 January), and in collaboration with a number of renowned bodies and companies from the industry, FITUR is organising a series of different environments designed to boost  the tourism brands of the different  destinations and  bodies that take part at the trade fair. This is precisely at a time in which new technologies have opened up unlimited branding opportunities, with the Internet and the social media operating at the forefront of all of the latest trends.

 

 

In short, this will be the main theme of the Seventh Exceltur Forum, an event organised by the employer's association, EXCELTUR, in collaboration with the UNWTO and FITUR. This forum will take place on 21st January, the day before the commencement of FITUR, in the North Auditorium at Feria de Madrid. The guiding theme at the meeting will be "Tourism: A Key Industry for Strengthening a Country's Brand", which aims to bring together wide-ranging representation from the international tourist industry and from the worlds of politics and business. This event will focus on the objective of promoting the best information in order to facilitate progress in terms of competitiveness within the tourist industry, based on the vital role of the Internet and new technologies applied to tourism.

Intelligent destinations will also be subject to debate and reflection, based on an analysis of different trends and success stories presented at the trade fair by SEGITUR and the Spanish Foreign Trade Institute (ICEX) within the framework of Fitur Know-How & Export. In this respect, participants will gain an insight into the vision of a number of different experts in sustainability, accessibility and technology regarding the tourist destinations of the future. Other themes of interest will include Googleglass, in its capacity as a tool for discovering destinations via the Internet. We will also be offered a review of the current map of tourist apps, which serve as a model for promotion, sales and branding.

 

 

FITUR will also join the growing world of apps with the staging of the First Tourism Apps Competition, organised within the framework of Fitur Know-How & Export. This Competition will select the best Spanish application for the tourist industry within four different categories (Active Tourism, Sun & Beach Tourism, Cultural Tourism and an Open Category), as well as the best foreign tourist application in the category of Best Destination Guide. An award will also go to the apps that most enhance the way in which tourists experience their trip.

FITUR Travel Bloggers
As part of the unstoppable rise of new technologies, FITUR is also heading a number of innovative initiatives, effectively promoting the Internet as a tool for tourism promotion and dissemination and a means of bringing professionals together. Since 2011, the year in which FITUR entered the social media, some 62,000 followers have joined its community on Facebook and another 37,564 followers have joined it on Twitter. These profiles provide a key forum for interaction and promotion involving all of the different tourism representatives that take part at the trade fair.

Within this context, FITUR has gone a step further with two new initiatives that will help to extend the trade fair's projection and strengthen the branding of its participants, whilst also facilitating virtual and physical meetings. First of all, FITUR has joined the Russian social network, V Kontakct, which is aimed at the tourism industry that operates in all Russian-speaking countries. Russian tourism is still incipient in Spain, but presents the highest rate of growth of any nationality. Second, FITUR has launched its FITUR Travel Bloggers Competition for the second consecutive year, an initiative that has been designed to be developed via the Internet. The awards, however, will be presented in person at the trade fair, with the two best bloggers selected from Europe and the Americas being invited to attend FITUR.  The extension of this competition to include two continents represents a new challenge following the success of the last edition, which was only open to entries from Latin America and witnessed a total of 132 candidates from 16 countries throughout the region. This year the competition has been laid open to all tourism bloggers from any of the countries that make up the European Union and any of the countries on the American Continent. In this respect, FITUR continues to promote the use of the social media in order to promote tourism and support the important work that these opinion-leaders carry out within the field of tourism. The registration period for this initiative shall be open up until 26th November through the site http://travelblogger.es and through the app www.facebook.com/FeriaFitur.

There is little doubt that the Internet and its different platforms have become one of tourism's best allies. They constitute a key tool when it comes to boosting competitiveness, effectively complementing other physical forms of support, such as those offered by FITUR and its various specialised forums, events that offer an indispensable means of establishing real contact and securing business deals. The entire tourist industry worldwide is invited to take advantage of these sterling opportunities.

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