By Joan Ribó | Mayor of València – Chairman of the Feria Valencia Board of Trustees
In a year such as the one we experienced last year, which was without doubt unprecedented, Feria Valencia continued to show its strength as an institution at the service of the society to which it belongs. The consequences of the pandemic led to the restructuring of the trade fair and conference sector around the world. This has also been the case in Valencia. However, it is no less true that in such precarious times as those recently experienced, Feria Valencia was able to maintain more than reasonable levels of activity and prepare itself for the future.
This annual report (this year presented in web format) details all these different activities. But, beyond this, I would like to highlight that the extraordinary uses that started at the beginning of the pandemic have continued during 2021.
A full 15,000 square metres of storage across the exhibition site were made available to store the materials related to the fallas until the special event in September 2021. When the state of alarm was announced in March 2020, we had to take them off the streets of Valencia when the festivities were cancelled.Having available facilities, such as Feria Valencia, allowed us to successfully handle what could have been a logistics nightmare for the city.
Likewise, the exhibition site played an important role in combatting the pandemic as it turned itself into a logistics warehouse, so the Generalitat could store the healthcare products essential in the fight against COVID. This was a need that arose as a matter of urgency and for which Feria Valencia allocated a further 20,000 square metres of storage space, which remains permanently available. All this was done without forgetting the most important needs of Feria Valencia’s clients: The total of 65 fairs and events held during 2021 confirm this fact. In the face of all these circumstances, it is right to recognise that, once more, Feria Valencia, our trade fair institution, is a key asset for the present and future of the economy in the Valencian Community and the city of Valencia. Feria Valencia is in a strong position to face new challenges and missions at the service of all the Valencian.