Soltour Travel Partners brings the Metaverse to FITUR

The first day of the fair also featured the participation of several tourism industry experts in a round table focused on the role of local experience as a catalyst for hotels and destinations

The company organized two cultural exhibitions involving two important destinations: Riviera Maya and Japan, the latter with its recent partner, Europamundo

Finally, the company has introduced its new partner, WebBeds, its new accommodation distribution provider

Madrid, January 18, 2023. Soltour Travel Partners is back again this year at the tourism industry's most important trade fair: FITUR. From its Summit, at stand C05 in pavilion 3 of IFEMA, the company has kicked off three days full of events and presentations. Over the three days aimed at the professional public, Soltour Travel Partners has worked to offer travel agencies and fair attendees round tables with useful and important information on various aspects of the travel industry with leading players in the sector.

The first great experience of the day came from Silvia Leal, International expert in Trends and Technology, who provided an overview of the tourism Metaverse. For the first time, Soltour Travel Partners has brought the Metaverse to Fitur. After an explanation of what the Metaverse is and how it works, Silvia Leal explained the potential of this new tool for the tourism industry with a demonstration thanks to virtual reality glasses that attendees were able to try on and discover the new reality presented by the Metaverse.

The Metaverse opens up a new, realistic and differential world of possibilities that can transform the way we understand travel and its commercialization. In fact, Silvia Leal has pointed out to travel agencies the importance of adopting this tool, so as not to be left behind and benefit from its full potential in the travel business.

“It's an honor to be able to participate and lead such an experience at FITUR with Soltour Travel Partners. The Metaverse is a completely new environment, with new rules, new players, new challenges, but also new opportunities. The world of tourism cannot be left behind and agencies and other industry players must begin to consider the possibilities of the metaverse and work on it if they want to stay at the forefront of the sector,” says Silvia Leal.

“At Soltour Travel Partners we are convinced of the importance of innovation and, nowadays, technological innovation is marked by the metaverse and its application in all areas of society. We are aware of the opportunity that the metaverse represents for tourism and we are working to continue innovating in this sense and to provide travel agencies with new and innovative tools that they can apply in their work,” adds Teresa Arizti, Chief Marketing Officer of Soltour Travel Partners.

But the metaverse was not the only big presentation of the day: Soltour Travel Partners also organized the panel discussion “Local Experience. Differential Hotels” aimed at experts from the hotel sector. Under the direction of Teresa Sapey, renowned international architect, Diego Calvo, CEO of Concept Hotel Group; Lluisa Salord, Global Sales Executive Director of Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts and Rodrigo Motavelazco, Sales Director of Xcaret Parks and Tours, explained how more local offers in a destination favor a differentiation from the competition and attract a more select client, who is interested in the country's culture, while favoring the local economy.

After the round table, Soltour Travel Partners and its recent partner, Europamundo, conducted an experiential presentation of the destination of Japan through the ancient technique of Kintsugi, the art of restoring tableware with gold thread. With the help of Clara Graziolino, a sculptor dedicated to the creation of Wabi-Sabi ceramics for everyday life and the dissemination of Kintsugi, attendees were able to discover Japanese culture, the philosophy and materials of this art, as well as the new circuits that Europamundo will offer in 2023 in Japan and important destinations such as Saudi Arabia, the United States and Europe.

Later in the day, Soltour Travel Partners introduced the latest partner to join the company, WebBeds, a global provider of accommodation distribution services for the travel industry. During the " Coffee reflection about the transformation of the channel" led by José María Hoyos, expansion director of Soltour Travel Partners, Anders Kiong, CEO of WebBeds, and Tomeu Bennasar, CEO of Soltour Travel Partners explained the details of this new alliance and how Soltour and WebBeds have given rise to BedBank de Soltour powered by WebBeds, a specialized provider that seeks to offer the widest hotel coverage to all its agencies.

Finally, and to end the first day of the trade show, Soltour presented one of its star destinations: Riviera Maya. The attendees were able to enjoy a live experience thanks to two experts in Mayan culture, who made corn dolls, a typical Mayan tradition, to later give way to the presentation of Soltour's operations in the destination.

After the success of the first day, Soltour Travel Partners will continue tomorrow with new activities from its Summit C05 in pavilion 3 of IFEMA.