Has passed FITUR and we have been able to participate in various activities that make us think that the health of the bicycle tourism It is good, it has more and more presence, even in a fair as general as FITUR.

The FITUR Fair, the main tourism fair in our country and one of the most important in the world, closed its doors. A fair where, as always, the presence of the Spanish public administrations in charge of tourism is enormous: Turespaña, Paradores, Autonomous Communities, City Councils, everyone wants to be in the showcase and unfortunately, sometimes, it seems like just that, being in the photo.

This year, many stands from different Autonomous Communities in Spain had the bicycle as one of the star products, although in many cases when we approached to ask, the thing did not look so pretty. There is still little product available, information scattered and not very accessible.

I started the fair with the program nature trails of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Environment which updated the status of the program and the pending work for 2018.

Another interesting milestone has been that the the Camino de Santiago and the Kumano Kodo Japanese presented the celebration of their 20 years of friendship. Fitur has been the setting to commemorate their 20 years of friendship. Both pilgrimage routes, two of the most important in the world and protected by UNESCO, were twinned in 1998, beginning an “intense relationship” that has strengthened ties between Japan and Galicia.

We participated in a meeting with operators to present our new Cycling Holidays products CYCLAMADRID organized by the General Directorate of Tourism of the Community of Madrid.

We meet the friends of runbaik that promoted the bike routes through Los Barrios, Cádiz, Madrid, Aragón, La Rioja, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands also promoted their new bike routes.

Also, the Silver Route Route, Greenways, Cycling friendly, Bikefriendly the Portuguese Algarve, Latvia presenting their new Greenways, Estonia…

On Friday we attended the presentation of CONBICI, where Ángeles López He told us how the project is going Eurovelo in Spain. They presented the advances that have occurred in 2017, we learned about the new website of Eurovelo Spain and the pending work for 2018. Sierra Norte He gave us a prize, along with many other businessmen, for creating a tourism product in the Sierra Norte. Thus, the 30 companies in the Sierra Norte that have offered an experience in their establishments, betting on tourism 365 days a year, received the 365st “Wood of Tourist Innovator XNUMX” Award. In our case by the CICLAMADRID MTB TOUR program.

On Saturday, the recognition was presented Outdoors Committed to Sustainable Tourism which rewards the trajectory of people, destinations and entities that stand out for their commitment to sustainable tourism.

In this 2018 edition of FITUR, this recognition it was for him Autonomous Organization National Parks (OAPN) and the Picos de Europa and Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Parks, in the year in which the first National Parks in Spain celebrate their centenary (1918-2018).

We also participate in the 10th Responsible Tourism Forum of the Spanish Center for Responsible Tourism in which Rutas Pangea participated together with the rest of the Center's partners, from which we promote tourism to be increasingly more responsible with the planet and with people. A meeting point for many interesting and necessary initiatives, in the search for another way of tourism.

One more edition of FITUR, which they tell us has broken records for exhibitors and visitors. Let's hope that the figures do not dazzle us too much, since what we need are more quality proposals, more days of stay, more activities where sustainability is a central axis and not so much, more and more tourists every year. We should understand that on a planet with finite and limited resources, we cannot celebrate that more tourists come to our country every year. It's a pretty perverse metric for measuring success. In the meantime we will continue pedaling.