The King and Queen of Spain inaugurate the IFEMA LAB 5G at FITUR 2018

22 January 2018

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia inaugurated last week the IFEMA LAB 5G presented at the International Tourism Fair, FITUR 2018, held in Madrid from January 17^th to the 21^st. During the opening visit to the fair, the Spanish Monarchs visited the stand of the IFEMA LAB 5G, an initiative launched by IFEMA and 5TONIC to explore ways of applying 5G technology to the tourism and trade fair sectors.

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FITUR 2018 has been presented as the most technological edition of the fair, since it has focused on innovation as one of the keys for the transformation of the tourism industry.

One of the outstanding technological novelties presented at this internationally renowned fair has turned FITUR and IFEMA into pioneers of the concept of “Augmented Trade Show”, a term that was coined by the multidisciplinary team that has been innovating in IFEMA LAB 5G since last September. This lab was created by IFEMA and the 5G innovation laboratory 5TONIC, founded by Telefónica, IMDEA Networks Institute and ERICSSON, to identify a series of applications for tourism and trade show management. The apps have been developed to deploy their functionalities with 5G technology (still in the process of standardization) in the near future.

The prototypes presented in FITUR have provided a taste of the possibilities of this ground-breaking technology that will completely transform the way to experience tourism and its management in a trade show environment. A special focus was placed on its synergy with Augmented Reality, a set of solutions geared towards strengthening the interactivity of the users and providing an immersive environment for their activity through access to almost limitless communications, data and calculation services in real time.

The “Augmented Trade Show” experience showcased at FITUR included elements of customization, scheduling and guidance with a smart virtual wizard, holographic interaction with other exhibitors or visitors to the fair, or people connected to it, plus the possibility of accessing all the activities and contents of the fair 100% digitally.