The first edition of the tourism fair Turexpo Galicia 2009 last November closed its three days with a turnout of 6.000 visitors. For a few days, the exhibition became a business centre and a meeting point for the professionals of the sector.
The first edition of Turexpo Galicia was dedicated specifically to the Jacobean Year 2010, a very appealing international event that will be essential for tourism not only in Galicia, but also in all the regions crossed by Saint James Way this year.
3.380 Business Meetings
It is worth mentioning that 65 % of the total figure of visitors were tourism professionals. As regards the number of exhibitors, 173 companies from seven countries participated in the show.
One of the pillars of the show was the Hosted Buyers Programme, a tool that allowed exhibitors get in contact with 88 tour operators from 21 different countries in order to present their tourism offer.
77 of these tour operators were international, coming from Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, USA, France, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Russia, Turkey and Uruguay. In addition, there were 11 participants who came from Spain.
Within this workshop 3.380 business meetings were held. The amount of participating tour operators, as well as the number of business meetings held, turned the event into the largest of this kind ever organized in Galicia.
Accompanying Program
Among the activities held within the show, one of the most interesting was the presentation of the “Q” for tourism quality certificates 2009. Among the awarded business were five rural tourism lodgings, seven hotels of the “Paradores” network in Galicia, a restaurant, a travel agency and two beaches. The prizes were presented by Mr. Fernando Frade, director of the National Institute for Tourism Quality (ICTE).
Also during the show a seminar on “Tourism & ICT” was held. Among the topics of the discussions were multichannel contact-centres integrated in the website, the OfiTur Online (online management platform unified for tourism offices) and the new tourist guides with increased reality for mobile phones.
Other activities that took place during the show were the “Tenedor de Oro 2009” prize presentation where 9 Galician hotel and catering establishments were awarded, a course on labor risk prevention in rural tourism, the presentation of the Spanish Network of Accessible Tourism or a bus completely adapted for physically handicapped people and several tasting sessions of very appealing gastronomic products.
Turexpo Galicia 2011
The second edition of Turexpo Galicia will be held in the first months of 2011. Again the show will be conceived as a business centre and platform for the sector. This concept was the main feature of the first edition, and it has proved to be successful both as regards the programme of activities and the Hosted Buyers Programme. This will be again one of the pillars of the show; that will have as its main objective to increase the figures of both participants and business meetings.