On 26 January 2014, H.E. Mrs.  Busaya Mathelin, Ambassador of Thailand, paid a visit to the International Tourism Trade Fair 2014 (FITUR).

FITUR is the biggest tourism trade fair in Spain which takes place every year in Madrid. This year, it was organized during 22-26 January 2014, in which over 9,000 exhibiting companies from 165 countries around the world participated, together with approximately 220,000 visitors.

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has participated FITUR for several consecutive years and this year, Ms. Jutaporn Roengronasa, TAT Deputy Governor of Europe, Africa, Middle East and America Markets led a TAT delegation to set up a Thailand Tourism Stand where visitors could enjoy watching a demonstration of Thai massage and spa, learning to write their names in Thai, and writing down their wishes on paper leaves and decorating them on a tree located in front of the booth (these leaves would be taken to Thailand to be floated along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok). Thailand Tourism Stand drew much attention from a number of TV channels and journalists who came to film the booth and conduct interviews with TAT representatives.

The TAT also brought with them 15 tour operators from Thailand, among them were Anantara Hotels, Resorts and Spa, Arlymear Travel, Bangkok Airways, CBS Travel Asia. , Diethelm Travel Group, ETC Travel, Travex and Thai Airways, to engage in business talks with tour operators that were present at FITUR.

In 2013, the number of Spanish visitors to Thailand totaled 123,490, representing an increase of 10,349 visitors or 9.15 percent with respect to the previous year. Spain is currently the third European market with the biggest increase in the number of tourists to Thailand, following Russia (31.93 percent) and Eastern Europe (23.23 percent).  Over 50 percent of Spanish tourists are high- end tourists and honeymoon couples interested in visiting Thailand’s cultural and historical places and beautiful beaches. Their average stay time is approximately 14 days.