Easyfairs Iberia participates and is ratified as a new member of the AFE at its General Assembly held this Thursday at IFEMA-Madrid.

• The calendar of trade fairs scheduled for 2023 in various Spanish cities suggests that the year will be equivalent to that of recent pre-pandemic years.
• AFE approved the annual accounts, the activities planned for the year and ratified the integration of three new members.

20 January 2023 – The Association of Spanish Trade Fairs (AFE) held its General Assembly at IFEMA MADRID, taking advantage of FITUR, the International Tourism Trade Fair, as usual.

The members of the association reviewed the activities for 2022 and approved the annual accounts and the income and expenditure budget for 2023, as well as the activities planned for this year. The Assembly also ratified the incorporation of three new members, NEBEXT-Next Business Exhibitions, Easyfairs Iberia and Montecolino Ibérica, whose admission had already been made public.

Once the meeting was over, the president of AFE, Xabier Basañez, declared: “After a year 2022 that we initially described as one of consolidation and recovery of the sector, this year that is now beginning we will hold a number of events programmed by the members of our association similar to that of the pre-pandemic years and we also foresee growth in all the parameters that define the evolution of trade fair activity”.

FITUR is the first international trade fair to be held in Spain this year, with a significant increase in its main indicators. For our sector it is excellent news that this and other fairs continue to be held with good prospects and that exhibitors and visitors can take advantage of all the benefits derived from the celebration of 100% of its possibilities, facilitating meetings and business opportunities between them, at a time when the different economic sectors that make use of trade fairs need this type of dynamic instruments for their growth and recovery.

The Association of Spanish Trade Fairs, a non-profit organisation that was set up in 1964, has 34 associate members and represents 90% of the trade fair activity in our country. Trade fairs in Spain generate an estimated annual impact of 13,000 million euros (direct, indirect and induced impact), which means a contribution to the national GDP of 6,500 million euros and the generation of 123,000 direct and indirect jobs. Spain is among the leading countries in Europe in terms of trade fairs, along with Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.