The city features some of the most visited spots worldwide. But apart from that, it also gives importance to business tourism, which goes for high quality in every trip. More details of this will be available in 2015 IBTM.
The tourist attractiveness of Barcelona is the reason why the city is the host of the greatest annual business tourism fair worldwide. It is an event with more than a decade of history that has helped enhancing the Spanish market, which now shows record figures for its high number of visitors.
As from its first edition in 2004, IBTM has experienced the competition between areas like Costa Brava in Girona and Barcelona. Moreover, new trends on responsible tourism are gaining space in the market.
Travel agencies, tour operators, hotel chains, congress centres, service companies and event managers will come together once more to define a strategy as regards business tourism.
At the same time of IBTM, Smart City Expo World Congress is also celebrated. They are two events on urban trends.
There is no other place for them to take place: the city of Barcelona.
Barcelona: tourism and business
When TripAdvisor announced the winners of the 3rd edition of Travellers’ Choice in June, 2015, many people could finally understand the importance of Barcelona’s heritage.
The agency ranked Sagrada Familia as the first European tourist attraction and the fifth at a worldwide level. This has been a landmark for Barcelona and its modernism, which were also awarded for Casa Batlló. This modernist gem received the 16th place in Europe and the 3rd in Spain, whereas Palau de la Música, the 7th place at a national level.
Nowadays, tourism represents 12% of the GDP in Catalonia. The sector is also strong at a national level since Spain leads the ranking of countries with the greatest tourist competitiveness, according to the World Economic Forum.
Within the sector, business tourism is another successful niche in Barcelona, a city that also organizes important events, such as Mobile World Congress and Alimentaria; referent fairs like Barcelona International Motor Show and Barcelona International Comic Fair; or fashion events, such as Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week and 080 Fashion Barcelona.
Taking all that into account, it is not strange that Barcelona has been chosen as the best point for meetings and conferences of Europe in 2015 World Travel Awards 2015.
2015 IBTM
The event 2015 IBTM (formerly EIBTM) is celebrated in Fira de Barcelona from November 17th to 19th.
The greatest business tourism meeting worldwide brings together 3000 exhibitors from 150 countries and is expecting to welcome up to 15,500 professionals within the sector.
Once a year, IBTM World shows the latest trends on destinations, services and tourist products for professionals. The event is also useful for networking among the different agents, allowing them to make contacts and signing agreements.
Among the main working areas are:
- Hosted Buyers Programme, for ‘purchasers guests’, offering meetings for Spanish and international suppliers in order to enhance commercial alliances.
- IBTM Knowledge Programme informs on the current and upcoming trends, connects professionals, inspires everyone with the presence of economists and experts, innovates on planning, optimizes productivity and opens new strategic lines.
- The Innovation Area shows the latest technological solutions for event management.
The event counts on more than 100 conferences and concludes with the IBTM World Awards, during which businesses and leader companies in the sector are awarded.
The masterlines of business tourism are again defined from the city of Barcelona.
