Meet the Feria Hábitat Valencia
Meet the Feria Hábitat Valencia
Feria Hábitat Valencia is the main international showcase of the Spanish habitat industry with a wide range of furniture, lighting, decoration, upholstery and rest. Every year it brings together more than 600 national and international companies and in its last edition it received more than 48,000 professional visitors from 70 countries. The event, which will take place from the 19th to the 22nd of September, confirms its best expectations and continues the upward trend of the last edition, in which, together with the kitchen and textile sectors, it occupied eight pavilions at Feria Valencia. Read the interview with Daniel Marco, Director of Feria Hábitat Valencia.
Feria Habitat de Valencia is spoken worldwide, what are the expectations for the next edition? What’s the main news?
In fact, Feria Habitat de Valencia continues to respond very positively to the business expectations of our exhibitors and visitors. Every year, our growth is about 30% and I can tell you that for this year’s event, which will be held from 19 to 22 September at Feria Valencia, we have already matched the number of direct exhibitors (more than 400) of the last edition, so we anticipate a new edition with a remarkable growth in all our parameters. All this translates into forming a successful event that integrates a very powerful offer with the best European habitat companies, with a large role of Spanish companies, but also of key markets for our fair, such as Portuguese. As for the news, I can tell you that this year, Habitat will host three major exhibitions around three relevant figures in Spanish design. The first of these, and organized directly by Habitat itself, will be an exhibition around designer Gabriel Teixidó, one of the most influential professionals of recent decades. In addition, hand in hand with the design company Santa & Cole, Habitat 2023 will highlight an exhibition on the most significant of the Catalan master Miguel Milá, as well as an exhibition that traces the return to the origins in the Nude salon of José Manuel Ferrero.
We know that the Feria Habitat is an event where several deals are closed, what is the importance of this type of events?
The spirit of all trade and professional fairs, such as Feria Habitat Valencia, is to encourage business between supply and demand. This year we celebrate 60 years of service to our industry. Since our first edition in 1963, this fair is characterized by being a stimulator of the business of the furniture and habitat equipment sector and, especially, a gateway to international markets and exports. And we keep doing it because it’s in our DNA. As an example, in the last edition we were visited by buyers from 70 countries and, in total, we received more than 48 thousand professionals in the sector, including stores, shopping groups, large stores and professionals in the area of contract and prescription (interior designers, architects, designers or hotel chains).
This edition, once again, is in conjunction with Home Textiles Premium, talk a little about this relationship….
It will be the second year in which Feria Habitat València and Home Textiles Premium by Textilhogar coincide, after the more than positive experience of the last edition, in which the furniture and equipment sector for the kitchen was also added, which will return as early as 2024. The goal is to enhance synergies between all sectors that make up the habitat: furniture, home textiles, lighting, decoration, … a powerful enough offer to be very attractive to interior design and decoration professionals.
Year after year, the increase in the Portuguese presence at the Feria Habitat is remarkable, how do you evaluate the presence of the Portuguese?
For Feria Habitat Valencia, Portugal is one of the key and priority markets. In fact, the sector considers the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) a single market, with the obvious similarities in the distribution channels and which is reflected in a majority presence of Portuguese companies in the Habitat showcase. In our last edition we have already welcomed the presence of more than 40 Portuguese companies and in 2023 we will also register important participation numbers. Portugal has been working for many years for quality furniture and design and through companies with a name already consolidated in the European panorama of the sector. Habitat and Valencia are your home and gateway to international markets.
Looking to the future, what is the path of Habitat Valencia?
We are still on the road to growth. Sustained, but constant. In this sense, our goal is to be useful to the sector, both for our exhibitors and our visitors; offering the best facilities and the best conditions to be profitable and precipitate business among the professionals who come, every September, to a city as welcoming as Valencia. See, in 2022, the design world set its sights on Feria Habitat Valencia on the occasion of the celebration of Valencia as the World Capital of Design. And they discovered a universe of creativity and talent covering the more than 70,000 square meters of our fair, through the most prestigious designers in the world. In 2023, we continue to work to consolidate Feria Habitat Valencia as the European reference fair of the second half of the year.