The Turisme de Barcelona (Barcelona Tourism Office) recently presented last year’s statistics for the professional tourism industry at the annual assembly of its Barcelona Convention Bureau (BCB). The assembly was held at the meetings facility L’Acadèmia, and attended by 200 professionals from the sector. All in all, it was concluded that 2010 proved a fruitful year for meetings and incentives.

Conventions and incentives were largely impacted by the worldwide economic crisis. With the recent recovery being experienced in the U.S particularly, all destinations alike have regained the ground they had lost during the past two years.

For Barcelona, 2010 has reaped great numbers from the North America market—the market has grown by over 35 percent in 2010 from 2009. Additionally, the North American market represents 20 percent of the international market and the US market is the second international market beyond the UK.

Currently in Barcelona, the international market represents 59.5 percent of business, while the local Spanish market share is 38.

5 percent. In 2010, Barcelona hosted 2,138 meetings representing 616,833 delegates. The number of professional meetings held last year in the Catalan capital was up 15.1 percent over the 2009 figures. Consequently, the increase in the number of meetings drove the number of delegates who attended meetings in Barcelona, a whole 7.1 percent over the previous year’s figures. The increase in the number of meetings for Barcelona was mainly the result of the spike in the number of international conventions and incentives, which represented 18.8 percent of the overall number of meetings.

Barcelona is a metropolis which is fully equipped to host congresses and conventions.

It is one of the cities in Europe and the world that hosts the greatest number of international congresses. Barcelona received second position in the ICCA ranking for the year 2009. In recent years, Barcelona has proved itself to be one of Europe’s most attractive and dynamic cities, and this has made it one of the preferred meeting and incentive trip destinations.

Marketing Challenges International, mmanganelli@mcintl.com, www.mcintl.com