Por María Izquierdo 
La Junta de Castilla y León is participating this weekend in the Expovacaciones fair in Bilbao with a promotion of the global tourism offer and betting on the promotion of the Community as a ‘Movie Set’. The Basque Country is the fifth tourist market to Castilla y León, with more than 449,780 visitors in 2024, 4.44% more than the previous year.
May 10, 2025
Castilla y León |
Department of Culture, Tourism, and Sports
The Junta de Castilla y León is present this weekend at the Expovacaciones 2025 tourism fair, held at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre in Barakaldo. A trade fair aimed at sector professionals and the general public. The promotion by the Department of Culture, Tourism, and Sports features a 100-square-meter stand and the presence of the provincial tourism boards of Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, and Zamora, who have brought their main tourism products to the fair. The stand is themed with the promotional slogan ‘Castilla y León. Movie Set’.
Additionally, a tasting area has been set up inside the stand, where the Junta is promoting its wine and gastronomic offer with demonstrations and tastings of the wines from the nine Routes of Castilla y León. This space is animated by chef and communicator David Monaguillo and has a wide range of activities open to the public.
Movie Set
The Department participated on Friday in the ‘SET CONGRESS! Screen in Emotional Tourism’, a new congress, unique in Europe, held at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC) in Barakaldo, coinciding with the Expovacaciones Fair.
Spain is a powerhouse in the tourism sector and is also one of the most common locations in the world for filming. Screen tourism is a growing sector that connects tourists and viewers with territories in a more productive way, as it involves experiences and emotions.
Castilla y León, which presented itself as a ‘Movie Set’ at FITUR, participated in this congress through a roundtable discussion titled ‘Destinations that bet on screen tourism’. The panel included speakers such as Fernando de Patrocinio Rodríguez (Junta de Castilla y León), Ilona Shekyants Kazaryan (State Secretariat for Tourism), and Patricia Pérez de Castro (Eturia Castilla-La Mancha), moderated by Ana Alonso (The Travelling Set). The roundtable highlighted the importance of screen tourism as a tourist attraction and a territory dynamizer, initially due to the benefits generated during filming by production teams, actors, etc., and later by the richness generated by viewers and tourists who wish to visit and know the places where these movies, series, etc., were filmed. The seventh art is therefore decisively contributing to the increase in tourism in many territories, transforming viewers into travelers, thanks to the magic of cinema.
At this conference, the five brochures created to promote film tourism in Castilla y León were presented, titled: Castilla y León Series Route, Castilla y León Western Territory, Castilla y León by Orson Welles, Castilla y León by Carlos Saura, and Castilla y León Cid Route. As well as the promotional spot titled Castilla y León ‘Movie Set’, which features images of some of the locations where important films such as ‘Doctor Zhivago’, ‘El Cid’, ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, ‘Fast & Furious X’, ‘Juana the Crazy’, or ‘Lost Paradises’, among others, were filmed.
Proximity Market
Castilla y León showcases its tourism offer in the Basque Country, considered a market of great interest and a priority in its promotional actions due to its proximity and high demand for specialized tourism products.
In 2024, 449,780 travelers from the Basque Country visited Castilla y León, 4.44% more than the previous year, becoming the fifth largest market towards the Community, accounting for 6.49% of the total national travelers.