The project, which has the full support of Malaga City Council, will be held at the city’s tradeshow and congress centre from 27-30 March 2014.
The aim of 1st edition of the International Horse Show (SIEMA 2014) is to convert Malaga into an indispensable winter fixture on the international horse event agenda and, at the same time, recuperate its past tradition for hosting winter sports fixtures. With this in mind, the idea is to organize a major event combining tourism with world-class sports. The main objectives of the organizers are as follows: to increase the number of tourists visiting Malaga through the event’s promotion and attendance; to disseminate the sports and environmental values embodied by the horse world; to position Malaga among the major European cities hosting horse events; to convert the show into a driver of the city’s economy and tourist industry, and to create and consolidate an annual awards scheme keyed to acknowledging the work of the horse world’s most outstanding figures.
In a meeting held with the Mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, Manuel Romero, vice-president of the National Carriage Association of Spain (ASN-ESP), stressed that the horse world "lends itself to the creation of new tourism products, as well benefiting the industry’s development and sustainable development programmes." Along these lines, "for over 10 years, all the studies conducted on the economic impact of the horse industry on Andalusia indicate that it has experienced exponential growth since 2002; although it has to be said that the City of Malaga has lagged behind somewhat."
The aforementioned studies estimated the industry’s economic impact in over 400€ million in 2002, nearly 700€ million in 2006 and approximately 1,700€ million in 2010. These figures are both unknown to the general public and surprising, with an estimated growth rate of approximately 300% over the next 10 years.
As to sports aspects, Romero indicated that SIEMA’s competition would revolve around the horse world’s two main modalities: horse jumping and dressage. And above all traditional Andalusian dressage (doma vaquero), creating a multi-disciplinary horse show to attract, entertain, and surprise spectators, be they fans or not.
In addition, a parallel programme with a wide range of activities has also been envisaged, featuring indoor competitions and carriage driving, a sports modality with thousands of fans all over Europe.
Furthermore, there are also plans for a multi-sector tradeshow, with the latest products and services from all over the world, with the accent on the horse industry.
