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As sign of Spain’s reopening, Madrid tourism fair eyes 100,000 visitors next week

Madrid's FITUR, one of the world's biggest tourism fairs, is expecting to welcome 100,000 visitors from 60 countries when it opens in the Spanish capital next week, the organisers said Thursday.

Published: 14 May 2021 09:55 CEST
As sign of Spain's reopening, Madrid tourism fair eyes 100,000 visitors next week
Visitors stand next to a giant board displaying a picture of tourists at the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid on January 22, 2020. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

They said it would be “the first physical trade fair” held by the sector since the coronavirus pandemic erupted early last year.

“The world is watching because despite everything, we have decided to physically hold the first major tourism fair,” said José Vicente de los Mozos, head of IFEMA which owns the vast premises where the tourism fair is normally
held.

The aim is “to kickstart the recovery of tourism”, a sector which is vital for the Spanish economy, he told a news conference.

“We are expecting to see around 50,000 industry professionals from Spain and abroad between Wednesday and Friday, and another 50,000 people when it opens to the public at the weekend,” IFEMA said in a statement.

But the numbers are far below pre-pandemic levels with 260,000 attending in 2020, among them 150,000 industry professionals.

Around 5,000 industry organisations are expected to attend, but as a precaution, capacity within IFEMA’s seven pavilions, which cover 44,000 square metres, will be reduced by half.

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In order to circumvent the travel restrictions imposed on non-EU visitors, the Spanish government will grant attendees an “essential travel” status which will allow industry professionals to obtain a visa.

And on arrival, they must also produce evidence of a negative PCR taken within the previous 72 hours and will have to undergo further tests during the industry sector days.

There will be no such requirements for the general public who are only expected to stay up to two hours at a time and move between pavilions, thereby limiting the risk of contagion, IFEMA’s director general Eduardo López-Puertas explained.

There will also be a host of events organised online.

In spring 2020, part of IFEMA’s trade fair grounds was transformed into a field hospital to ease the pressure on the city’s hospitals who were
overwhelmed with Covid cases when the pandemic first erupted.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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