Valencia Trader

Going Public

Francisco Camps, the President of the Valencian Community was in Madrid yesterday to preside over the Day of the Valencian Community at the FITUR tourist trade fair in Madrid. Speaking with journalists, he was somewhat more open about his discussions with Formula 1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone about staging a race in Valencia, telling the press that a Formula 1 race could be staged in Valencia soon’. He also added that the final cost and the roads affected would be nil, and it was important that this was pointed out as soon as possible. Echoing these sentiments was Rita Barbera, The Mayoress of Valencia, who stated that she was ‘enormously hopeful that Mr. Camps will be able to bring this event to the City as support for it has been expressed by an enormous amount of Valencians. She also stated that Valencia is becoming an international city capable of staging large events and not on the backburner as it was fifteen years ago. For his part, Mr. Camps also stated that he simply failed to understand why Joan Ignasi Pla and the Socialists were so against bringing the Formula 1 races to Valencia citing ‘other priorities’ but refused to reveal what these were. “How can anyone not want an event of this importance and value to be staged in Valencia?” he asked.

Mr. Campos also revealed that the expectations of his government ‘are to bring between eight and nine million foreign tourists to Valencia by 2010’. He also stated that it was highly probable that that figure could be increased due to the important international events that are to be staged in the City and the overall global media attention they are getting.