Zaragoza will show off its links with Francisco de Goya at the International Tourism Fair 2021 (FITUR), to be held between the 19th and 23rd of May in Madrid, where it will also present itself as a destination for LGTB+ tourism and as a film set where many films have been shot. On its return to FITUR, Zaragoza is tripling its efforts with two new monographic stands, in addition to the one that is usually located in the Government of Aragon’s space, which this year will be dedicated to Goya.
The Deputy Mayoress, Sara Fernández, affirmed in a press conference that during this year Zaragoza Tourism has worked to improve the tourist offer to become a “more sustainable and more digital” destination. “All this work is what we are going to promote more intensely than in previous years at FITUR, with two new monographic stands”, she commented. This tourism fair, which is held at IFEMA, attracts 225,000 people each year.
At the stand of the Community’s space, Zaragoza will be positioned as the city where Goya lived his childhood and trained as a painter to become a tourist attraction around the artist from Fuendetodos. The main event will be held on 20 May and will be dedicated to the figure of Goya, coinciding with the 275th anniversary of the birth of Aragon’s most universal painter.
To commemorate the event, the City Council has organised a full programme of activities, including exhibitions, plays, guided tours, comic publications and urban art, which will be held throughout the year and which will be announced at FITUR. Gastronomy will also occupy a prominent place with the Tapas Routes around the figure of Goya, a gastronomic route that, in collaboration with the Associations of Cafés and Bars and Horeca Restaurants, runs through establishments located near places where the painter’s legacy can be enjoyed or visited. In addition, Zaragoza Tourism has prepared new tourist routes, some with dramatised visits, to discover not only Goya’s artistic legacy in the city, but also the places where he spent part of his life. Along these lines, throughout the year activities will be organised so that young Aragonese can reinterpret Goya’s works and, in the streets of the city, reproductions of his figure decorated by artists will be placed.
As a novelty this year, Zaragoza will also be present in the LGTB+ space at FITUR with its own stand that will position the city as a “destination for diversity”, in which events such as the Cierzo Games, which are held in the city every year with the aim of promoting sport and achieving the full integration of LGTB sportspeople, or the LGTBQI Zinentiendo film festival, will also be represented.
This group represents more than 10% of tourists worldwide and accounts for 16% of total travel spending. Furthermore, according to Zaragoza Turismo, this tourist profile is positioned as “one of the first to seek to resume their travel routines as soon as mobility is allowed in the country”.
The Manager of Zaragoza Tourism, Conrado Molina, explained that the Aragonese capital is an “open, tolerant and sensitive city that, as its past testifies, has always been committed to diversity and coexistence in all its aspects”. “The friendly and welcoming nature of its people has become one of its main virtues,” he said.
On the other hand, in a third monographic stand, Zaragoza will be positioned as a city of cinema and as the set where many films have been shot, including ‘Las niñas’, winner of the Goya for best film in 2021. Precisely, to attend to the needs of the audiovisual sector, this year the City Council has promoted the ‘Zaragoza film office’, integrated in the Spain Film Commission, to facilitate the filming of movies, documentaries, TV series or commercials.
Since Eduardo Jimeno shot the first Spanish cinema film in 1899, ‘La salida de misa de doce del Pilar de Zaragoza’, the corners of the city have appeared on the big screen and have served as locations for films such as ‘Solomon and the Queen of Sheba’ (1959), ‘Our Lovers’ (2016) or the series ‘The Last Show’ (2020), among others.
