Case study · Madrid

The fair of accessible tourism, accessible while walking through it.

At the 2024 edition, IFEMA MADRID launched FITUR 4all, a section dedicated to accessible tourism organised with IMPULSA IGUALDAD. To match the message with the experience, it embedded NaviLens at the key points of the venue: priority-access registration desks, information points, hall directories and the 4all booths themselves.

FITUR 2024

1st edition of FITUR 4all · 24-28 Jan · IFEMA MADRID

13 halls

200,000 m² of venue with codes at key points

Priority access

Registration desks signposted with NaviLens

ES · EN · 42+

Multilingual voice readout in the language of the visitor's phone

The client

IFEMA MADRID
FITUR · FITUR 4all · IMPULSA IGUALDAD

IFEMA MADRID is Spain's main trade-fair venue: 13 halls and 200,000 m² in the north of the city. FITUR — International Tourism Trade Fair is its flagship event, with hundreds of thousands of professionals and visitors over five days.

In January 2024 (24-28), FITUR launched FITUR 4all, a new section dedicated to accessible tourism, organised with IMPULSA IGUALDAD —creators of the TUR4all brand— and closing each edition with the FITUR 4all Awards for the most inclusive destinations and companies.

On top of that strategy, IFEMA MADRID and FITUR added the NaviLens layer to the venue itself: digital signage that lets people with visual disabilities and international visitors find their way from the entrance to the booth without depending on a companion.

§ The challenge

Let anyone walk through the fair without having to ask for help.

01
A huge fair with massive visitor flows
FITUR brings hundreds of thousands of professionals and public to the 13 halls of IFEMA MADRID in just five days. For a blind or low-vision person, reaching the right booth without asking for help at every junction was impossible: printed maps, PA announcements and posters all at once don't solve orientation.
02
FITUR 4all as a manifesto for accessible tourism
In 2024, FITUR launched the FITUR 4all section together with IMPULSA IGUALDAD —creators of TUR4all— as a space dedicated to inclusive tourism. The fair needed its own experience to match that message: accessibility had to be lived while walking through the fair, not just discussed at the panels.
03
A layer that works at the hall, the desk and the booth
An accessible signal was needed, detectable from several metres away, without aiming and in tricky fair lighting, across three very different settings: entry registration, information points and priority access, the directory of each hall and the FITUR 4all booths themselves.

IFEMA MADRID registration desks with blue and red vinyl: on the left, the «Priority Access» sign with disability pictograms; on the right, a square NaviLens code attached to the side of the desk

§ The solution

A code at every key point of the route.

IFEMA MADRID and FITUR placed NaviLens codes at the venue's key points: priority-access registration desks, hall information points, directories and maps of every hall —with their alphabetical list of exhibitors— and the FITUR 4all booths themselves.

The visitor opens NaviLens GO and, with a sweep of the phone from several metres away and without aiming, hears aloud —in the language of their phone— what's in front of them: where to register, which hall they are in, which companies exhibit in that area or which FITUR 4all session is starting.

The NaviLens layer coexists with the fair's usual signage —accessibility pictograms, printed maps, information desks— and joins the FITUR 4all programme as a practical demonstration of inclusive tourism.

§ The venue

From registration to the FITUR 4all booth.

Long row of «Visitor Registration» desks at IFEMA MADRID, with a NaviLens code attached to the side of the blue and red counter, next to the triangular Priority Access sign with disability pictograms

Hall 7 directory at IFEMA MADRID with the hall floor plan on the left, the alphabetical list of exhibitors in the centre and, on the right, the sector map next to a FITUR 4all sign with its NaviLens code

Information point at IFEMA MADRID: on the glass of the desk, an «Empowering visually impaired» sign with a large square NaviLens code and the label «Information point»

Codes are installed at the useful height of each landmark —booth column, side of the desk, directory panel— so a sweep of the phone is enough to detect them without aiming, even in the middle of a busy fair crowd.

§ Why it matters

Accessible tourism, demonstrated by the fair itself.

Consistency

FITUR 4all talks about inclusion: embedding NaviLens at registration, directories and booths turns the message into an experience the visitor can live.

Market

7 million people choose a destination in Spain based on its accessibility, and about 90 million in the EU: an audience for whom navigating a huge fair used to be very hard.

Multilingual

the code speaks in the language of the visitor's phone: for an international fair, that also smooths the arrival of foreign professionals without visual disabilities.

§ And your headquarters?