MADRID, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A total of 165 countries and regions, and 9,672 companies, will be represented at the 2017 edition of the FITUR International Tourism Fair which opened its doors here on Wednesday.
The five-day event continues to grow this year: there is a 17-percent increase in the number of exhibitors from Latin America, helped partly by the fact that Argentina is the guest of honor at the event, and a 9 percent rise in exhibitor numbers from the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.
In 2016, 231,872 visitors attended FITUR and the event generated around 240 million euros (257 million U.S. dollars) for Madrid. A similar attendance has been predicted for this year.
FITUR has several specialist sections focusing on health tourism, shopping, green tourism, the use of new technology in the industry.
The United Nations has designated 2017 the "International Year of Sustainable Tourism," and, as such, sustainability is one of the key topics in the many forums which are scheduled in what promises to be an intense five days from Jan. 18 to 22.
