For the second year in a row the ATTA team attended FITUR in Madrid, Spain, a show growing in stature now that the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has established with show organizers the UNWTO Awards program, which debuted at the January 2014 fair, to recognize and showcase innovative and sustainable tourism initiatives and influential individuals of the tourism sector.
“Especially for the ATTA’s Latin America team, this travel show means a great opportunity to meet and catch up with our different destination partners like Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica and others” said Antonio Del Rosal, Executive Director of Latin America, ATTA.
For Mexico in particular, the Spanish market is extremely important and for that reason Mexico´s presence at FITUR is impressive, not only for the size and beauty of its stand, but the caliber of Mexico´s tourism professionals who attend the event. From the National Tourism Secretary and many other Mexican State Tourism Secretaries, to owners and CEOs of the most important inbound tour operators, hotels, and airlines in Mexico. For several years now, the ATTA and Mexico have strengthened their relationship and FITUR provides the ATTA the opportunity to meet with our Mexican partners and keep working on projects like ATMEX and several other important initiatives in the making.
FITUR’s strategic engagement with UNWTO also lent strength to the timing of ATTA’s engagement in the 2014 trade fair. Ahead of FITUR, the UNWTO and the ATTA collaborated to present the first AdventureConnect event in Spain. The gathering was held at UNWTO headquarters. It was the first UNWTO-ATTA joint event where the two organizations met to reaffirm before AdventureConnect participants their mutual commitment to the UNWTO-ATTA 2012 agreement, which focuses on joint Advocacy, Research, Quality, Education & Training efforts. Following AdventureConnect and during FITUR, the UNWTO and ATTA also discussed details and next steps concerning two new research projects set for announcement and release in 2014 and 2015.
Additionally, the ATTA met with several European partners during the trade fair, bolstering its growing membership network, which now includes approximately 165 organizations throughout the continent.