King Felipe VI of Spain visited the Turkey Stand at the FITUR Fair...

King of Spain: Istanbul's pain is Madrid's pain

King Felipe VI of Spain and his wife, Queen Letizia, visited the Turkey stand at the FITUR Fair, which opened in Madrid. King Felipe gave a message of support to Turkey, saying, “Istanbul's pain is Madrid's pain.”

The Turkey stand at the FITUR 2017 Tourism Fair held in Madrid, the capital of Spain, had a surprise guest. King Felipe VI of Spain and his wife, Queen Letizia, visited the Turkey stand at the FITUR Fair, which opened in Madrid and is considered one of the most important tourism fairs in the world. The King and Queen chatted at the stand for about 15 minutes. King Felipe VI gave a message of support to Turkey, saying, “Istanbul's pain is Madrid's pain.”

Will create a positive perception

Assessing the visit, Müberra Eresin, Vice President of the Association of Turkish Hoteliers and Chair of the Fairs, Promotion and Marketing Committee, noted that King Felipe's visit was followed by a large group of press members, and that they expected the visit to make a major contribution to creating a positive perception of Turkey in the Spanish tourism market.
Eresin said: “Spain is an important destination for us, both as a competing country and as a source market. Due to the economic instability in their country and Turkey's security perception problem, while we experienced a 15 percent decline in the number of Spanish tourists in 2015, a loss of more than 50 percent occurred in 2016. Therefore, we will establish multifaceted contacts in order to achieve recovery in the Spanish market, which prefers our country for cultural tourism. I hope the fair will be beneficial for our country.”