This is the FiturNext 2025 Challenge dedicated to how tourism can contribute to sustainable food management

The Challenge of the sixth edition of the FITUR Observatory, dedicated to the promotion of good regenerative tourism practices, focuses in 2025 on sustainable food management, framed within the Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to combat climate change, responsible production and consumption, reduce hunger and promote clean and safe water.

Initiatives aligned with this goal can register in this open form until 31 August 2024. All proposals submitted will be analysed according to a replicability and impact barometer and the winners will be awarded at the next edition of the International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR) in January 2025.

What are the categories of this Challenge?

As every year, FiturNext structures the call for proposals into three categories that follow specific indicators according to the impact of the initiatives that contribute to these areas:

• Destinations and other territories: aimed at those territorial administrative bodies that focus their efforts on improving food management in the tourism sector.
• Horeca and transport sector: aimed at organisations of any kind in the hotel, catering, cafeteria and transport subsectors that have implemented measures to optimise food management.
• Other agents in the food value chain: aimed at all cross-cutting agents in the tourism food chain that promote good practices in food sustainability.

What is food surplus and how does it relate to tourism?

Food surplus is the waste of agricultural and food products that are still in optimal condition to be edible and suitable for human consumption, but which eventually end up as waste. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year. That is the equivalent of 1.3 billion tonnes.

Tourism can increase this situation due to a lack of process optimisation, irresponsible consumption or inadequate food preservation, among other causes of surplus in the industry. In this context, the roadmap for the challenge of the 2025 edition of the FiturNext Observatory is to publicise initiatives that seek alternatives to food waste through its services and that can contribute to reducing these figures.

Last webinar of the 2024 edition

The last dialogue organised by FiturNext on the 2024 Challenge took place on 14 March, which brought together the conclusions and lessons learned from the winning initiatives. The session was attended by the protagonists of the last edition: Luis Romero, promoter of Recartografías, Miguel Ángel Herrera, mayor of Genalguacil and promoter of the Genalguacil Pueblo Museo project, and Alberto Luque, managing director of the Camino del Cid Consortium. If you missed the meeting, the webinar is available at this link.