FITUR 2025 highlights the transformative role of the sector and its commitment to sustainability and innovation

The 45th edition has reflected the positive balance of the industry, and revalidates FITUR’s leadership as the world’s leading fair in terms of participants and attendees.

Brazil has participated as a Partner Country in an edition that continues to grow: 9,500 participating companies from 156 countries, and 884 main exhibitors. Organized by IFEMA MADRID, the International Tourism Fair has convened the global tourism market in a 45th edition that has shown from January 22 to 26 the outstanding performance of the tourism industry during the past year of 2024 and the good expectations for 2025. A context of strength from which the industry, gathered around FITUR, wants to underline the pride of belonging to the sector, its transformative role and the marked commitment it shows to sustainability and innovation, areas that are very present not only in the sections but in the offer of destinations and companies. FITUR has reopened the international calendar of tourism fairs, revalidating its leadership as the number one event in terms of the number of participants and attendees, with the support of all public and private agents in the sector’s value chain. This is supported by the figures presented during the press conference at the Fairgrounds with a broad institutional and sector representation: 9,500 participating companies, 156 countries and 884 main exhibitors who have displayed their offer in 9 pavilions, highlighting the 101 countries with official representation. Likewise, the excellent response of the sector that FITUR 2025 has had has been reflected in the flow of attendance, estimated at 150,000 professionals from Wednesday to Friday and around 100,000 general public during the weekend.

FITUR, a consolidated global meeting that is decisive for tourism

After a 2024 of clear recovery after the pandemic, FITUR 2025 is once again defined by growth. The direct participation of main exhibitors with stands has reached 884, which represents a growth of 10% in general terms and 19% in internationality.

This internationality, which defines the objectives of the International Tourism Fair, is also reflected in the 101 official representations of countries, five more than in the last edition, and in the sum of eleven countries that will join FITUR in 2025, mainly from Africa and Asia. As a reflection of the penetration of technology and innovation in the tourism sector, it is worth highlighting the increase in the Travel Technology area, which brings together the technological trends in tourist reservation management, and which in the 45th edition exceeds one hundred companies from all over the world, which represents a sustained growth of 6%. With these excellent figures, FITUR has maintained its solid business orientation, with three exclusive days for professionals from January 22 to 24, and its additional and differential reach to the traveler on the weekend by opening its doors to the general public on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26. Among the novelties of 2025, the participation of Brazil as a Partner Country has stood out, which has made an important deployment at the Fair to show its diverse tourist offer and continue to promote the global positioning of the destination in a context of growth that, according to official data from the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism and Embratur, 2024 has been the best in history for the country’s international tourism, which has reached the record figure of 6,657,377 foreign tourists in the year, 12.6% more than the previous year.

The triad of the future of tourism:

Business, knowledge and sustainability

Faced with the reach of 790 million international tourists, with a direct global economic impact of nearly 3.4 billion USD in the first months of 2024, according to UN Tourism, FITUR 2025 aligns itself with the global challenge of the sector and reinforces its commitment to the revitalization of business, the dissemination of knowledge and good practices and the promotion of responsible tourism, inviting its professionals to promote the vindication of the role it plays as a fundamental sector in economic and social terms. In this new edition, FITUR announces the renewal of the 10 sections, promoting sustainability and business through it by connecting the tourism industry with other sectors that generate new niches of travelers.

This is the case of FITUR Cruises, developed with CRUCEROADICTO, which has shown the commitment of cruises to environmental sustainability, the protection of destinations and the positive impact on their communities; FITUR LGTB+, a segment that encompasses more than 10% of tourists worldwide, will showcase diversity and inclusion; FITUR Lingua, the space that addresses the opportunities of language tourism and its work in descent FITUR Techy, created in collaboration with ITH, also stood out, addressing how AI is revolutionising travel management; FITUR Talent, which is presented as a monograph on the challenges of talent, training and capacity building; FITUR Woman sponsored by Extremadura and organised in collaboration with WOMEN LEADING TOURISM, which aims to contribute to promoting female leadership; FITUR Know How & Export, the space created with SEGITTUR in collaboration with ICEX for Spanish tourism companies to showcase their potential and services, and the second edition of FITUR 4all, which promoted the development of accessible tourism with the sponsorship of Mallorca and has made visible initiatives by destinations and companies in this field through the II FITUR 4all Awards and the first Guide to Good Practices, all in collaboration with IMPULSA IGUALDAD. In addition to these ten sections, there is the FITUR Sustainability Observatory, FITURNEXT in alliance with Aqualia, which has addressed how tourism can contribute to the sustainable management of food. In this area, it should be noted that, following the roadmap initiated in 2023, IFEMA MADRID is once again measuring FITUR’s carbon footprint in scopes 1 and 2 as a sign of its commitment to sustainability and its commitment to promoting events with a low environmental impact. As a novelty, this 2025 will measure for the first time the impact in scope 3, which measures the indirect emissions that occur as a result of the celebration of FITUR. In addition, it is worth highlighting Puerto Rico’s sponsorship of the free WiFi network of FITUR and the new virtual plans tool that FITUR makes available to visitors to improve their experience when visiting the Fair. Finally, for the first time FITUR joins the company Holafly, leader in Europe in eSIM, to offer its visitors 24 hours of free eSIM during the days of the fair, giving them a high-quality and 100% secure connection by scanning a QR code. With more than 8 million users and more than 48,000 opinions, it is the best-rated eSIM in the world.

Weekend at FITUR Over the weekend, on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 January, FITUR opened its doors to the ultimate traveller, who had the unique opportunity to embark on a global journey without leaving the nine pavilions of IFEMA MADRID through a vibrant agenda of interactive activities organised by exhibitors, from live musicals, food tastings, accessibility awareness days, craft workshops and competitions. In addition, they will be able to access direct information on the extensive tourist offer of the destinations, from far-off paradises to local gems.