Fitur 2011
Positive evaluation of the Girona tourism sector’s participation in FITUR 2011.
MARCH 2014
From 19th to 23rd January, nine tourism organisations and companies from the Girona area took part in FITUR 2011, occupying two spaces incorporated within the Catalonia stand, to promote and inform about the general tourism offer of the Costa Brava and the Pirineu de Girona.
Within the 140 m2 Costa Brava space, the Patronat de Turisme shared an area with the town of Castell-Platja d’Aro. A touch screen was installed so that visitors could browse the destination portal and make online bookings of tourism services. The towns of Lloret de Mar and Blanes had their own separate area within the Costa Brava space.
The 75 m2 Catalan Pyrenees space incorporated the Pirineu de Girona brand and the towns of Puigcerdà and Vall d’en Bas, the county councils of La Cerdanya and El Ripollès, and the Vall de Núria ski and mountain resort, along with other Catalan tourism brands associated with the Pyrenees.
Organisations and towns from the Girona area took the opportunity to schedule a presentation for tourism sector professionals and the media of their new active tourism products, hiking routes close to the city of Girona and technological improvements made to tourism services and portals, such as the greenway E-routes of the counties of Girona and the new Platja d'Aro tourism website, among others.
The President of Girona Provincial Council and of the Patronat de Turisme, Enric Vilert, attended the fair, along with other Girona-based dignitaries and businesspeople from various sectors.
The Director of the Patronat de Turisme, Dolors Batallé, viewed the attendance and participation of the Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Girona at Fitur 2011 very positively in light of the contacts made with private organisations and companies, along with the productive business meetings and interviews held with tourism promotion bodies, tour operators and service providers involved in social media-related online bookings.
The event also gave the Patronat de Turisme the opportunity to define joint initiatives with Turespaña regarding the 2011 advertising campaign and the organisation of an extremely interesting promotional initiative scheduled for this spring consisting of a trip by international bloggers, who blog about tourism trips and destinations. The meetings held with various tour operators and travel agencies have led to the scheduling of a series of familiarisation trips to the area aimed at raising the profile of the Costa Brava in several markets, including Russia, with the goal of increasing the number of visitors from Eastern Europe.
The Costa Brava and Pyrenees spaces at the Catalonia stand gave the Patronat de Turisme and the towns and county councils from the Girona area a platform to provide information and promotional material on the area's tourism offer, as well as on products such as culture, wellness and beauty, golf, greenways, hiking, nautical tourism, gastronomy and skiing, etc. Specific documentation was also made available to tourism sector professionals interested in obtaining more detailed information on services and companies from the counties of Girona with which to make contact and do business. The first tourism guide to the Costa Brava in Braille, published in July 2010 by the Patronat de Turisme Costa Brava Girona and ONCE (the Spanish Organisation for the Blind), met with an enthusiastic response at this year's fair, highlighting the interest generated by the Costa Brava as an accessible and high quality tourism destination.
This kind of event contributes to the consolidation of our brands and to the promotion of the counties of Girona within the Spanish market.
