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The CCB welcomes 19 new members. These companies strengthen the wide and diverse range of MICE suppliers in Catalonia. Discover them:

The “Fifty Fifty” campaign, promoted by the Catalan Tourist Board in collaboration with the Catalunya Convention Bureau, has been awarded the silver prize for “Best MICE audiovisual production” at the International Tourism Film Festival Africa, which was held in Johannesburg (South Africa) from 11 to 15 June.

The campaign promoting Catalonia as a business tourist destination seeks to demonstrate why it is an ideal destination for corporate events, congresses and conventions. The director of the Catalan Tourist Board, Narcís Ferrer i Ferrer, explained that the campaign “highlights how Catalonia manages to strike the perfect balance between innovation and tradition; the sea and the mountains; urban and rural settings; lifestyle and business excellence; and authenticity and experience.” The campaign focuses on two twins: one who embodies the essence of large professional gatherings, and another who represents the soul of small meetings and incentive trips. Through a tour of the region’s impressive landscapes and meeting venues, the twins demonstrate the variety of options that exist for added-value events in Catalonia.

Ferrer stated “Catalonia boasts a complete ecosystem of services, facilities and activities that make it the ideal place to host all kinds of professional meetings and gatherings. This new campaign reaffirms our commitment to the promotion of MICE tourism in Catalonia, with a focus on innovation, sustainability and the legacy of these events in our region.”

Aimed at priority international markets such as France, the United Kingdom and Germany, the campaign presents Catalonia as a well-balanced destination that manages to combine its cultural richness and impressive landscapes with an industrial dynamism and spirit of research, ensuring that its professional visitors are able to enjoy a memorable stay.

This latest award complements the “Golden City Gate Award” for the best MICE&EVENT film that the Catalan Tourist Board picked up at the latest edition of ITB Berlin. In addition to these two awards, the Catalan Tourism Board’s campaign has also been selected to be screened in the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals (CIFFT).

Sustainable filming

The ACT’s commitment to sustainability even extends to its filming activity. When determining the locations for filming and the accommodation options for a team of forty people, the ACT made sure that the different sites and infrastructures held environmental certifications and/or promoted sustainable practices. This included the use of renewable energy, the efficient use of water and proper waste management.

These measures helped to reduce the environmental impact of the filming activity, demonstrating the ACT-hired production team’s commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.

Together with Sitges Convention Bureau, the Catalunya Convention Bureau has hosted, from 3rd to 5th June in Sitges, a fantastic edition of the Catalunya Business Meetings, organized by Business Meetings by Meet&Com. 30 French hosted buyers participated in various 1-to-1 meetings with Catalan suppliers and experienced exceptional moments discovering Sitges, a fascinating Mediterranean town just 30 minutes from Barcelona and 20 from its International Airport.

Catalunya Meetings & Sports, conceived by the Catalonia Convention Bureau of the Catalan Tourist Board, in collaboration with ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment and the Catalan Council of Sport, aims to promote Catalonia in the field of organizing and attracting international meetings, conventions, congresses, and fairs related to the sports industry.

The Secretary for Business and Competitiveness, Albert Castellanos, and the Secretary-General of Sports and Physical Activity, Anna Caula, presented March 13th at FC Barcelona’s Auditori 1899 the project Catalunya Meetings & Sports.

Albert Castellanos emphasized “the project’s transversality through its symbiosis between meetings tourism and sport, as well as the necessary public-private collaboration.” With this strategic relationship, the Catalan Government hopes to “strengthen two key economic sectors in Catalonia, to generate business, increase investments, improve international positioning, and drive their transformation.”

For her part, the Secretary General of Sport and Physical Activity has highlighted the role of sport as a “generator of economic activity and progress,” adding that “Catalonia is a land of sport largely thanks to a network of entities with the experience and expertise to organize major international sporting events successfully.” Events that “leave a legacy, it’s not just a few days of competition, but we promote the circular sport by creating parallel activities to grow the base of sport in Catalonia.”

The presentation event also included a roundtable discussion to debate the opportunities and challenges posed by the double idea of sports and business events. Participants included Albert Balcells, manager of OciSport; Maurici Carbó, coordinator of the AFYDAD Spanish Sports Association; Elisabeth Keegan, manager of Lloret Tourism; Carlos Rabaneda, president of Roc Roi; and Albert Mundet, General Director of Barça Innovation Hub.

Catalonia, a global leader in professional sports events

Catalonia stands out as the region with the highest concentration of sport-related businesses in Europe, boasting nearly 1,400 companies that generate over €6,500 million and employ approximately 32,000 people. Sport is an emerging sector within Catalonia’s productive ecosystem and accounts for 2% of Catalonia’s GDP. Furthermore, the city of Barcelona ranks fifth in Europe in terms of the number of sports industry startups.

This strength in such a specific sector is crucial for generating and attracting professional events and meetings. Currently, the city of Barcelona ranks seventh globally in terms of sports orientation, according to the Sports Cities Ranking 2023, and first in terms of international attendees, according to the ICCA ranking.

The organizational capacity, entrepreneurial and research spirit, excellent quality of sports facilities, and solid sporting foundation in Catalonia are decisive factors that explain the excellent positioning of Catalonia as regards attracting professional events within the world of sports.

Proof of the excellence of this region in this specialized tourism niche is the organization of the first World Congress on Sports Tourism, held in Lloret de Mar in 2021. This year highlights the hosting of the America’s Cup Barcelona 2024, which, although it isn’t an event focused entirely on the professional public, is a springboard for blue economy business events.

As regards the agenda of professional meetings related to the world of sports taking place this year in Catalonia, it is also worth mentioning PRO Women in Sports (Barcelona, March 20), the World Congress of the International Association of Sports Press (Santa Susanna, April 27 – May 2), Sea Otter Europe Connect (Girona, September 20-22), the European Sports Business Congress (Barcelona, October 8-11), the Annual Meeting of the International Association of Sports Travel Agencies-ISTAA (Barcelona, ​​November 16-18) and the recently held Sports Tomorrow Congress (Barcelona, ​​February 26 and 27) and Expo Sports (Barcelona, ​​March 8-9).

From January 25 to 26, the city of Barcelona hosted the annual meeting of the Strategic Alliance of National Convention Bureaux of Europe, organized by the Catalunya Convention Bureau. This gathering brought together prominent members of the alliance with the purpose of strengthening Europe’s position as a leading destination for international business events.

During the event, participants had the valuable opportunity to exchange experiences and share knowledge, focusing on strategies that contribute to positioning Europe as a reference in the MICE industry. The exchange of ideas and collaboration among national Convention Bureaux are crucial for the joint development of strategies that drive the industry in the region.

The program of the meeting included an enriching visit to the 22@, Barcelona’s Innovation District, as well as a tour of the Official Outreach Center of the 37th America’s Cup Barcelona. These visits provided participants with insight into the region’s assets to incorporate innovation into events.

Founded in 2014, the Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe is a collaborative network of 29 Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) with the common goal of consolidating Europe as a leading MICE destination. Since 2019, the Catalunya Convention Bureau is an active member.

This year Catalonia hosts a wide range of international MICE industry events: 

The Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe – Annual Meeting

Barcelona, 25-26 January

https://convention-europe.com/

Corporate Events Workshop – MICE & Train

Barcelona, 31 January

https://miceandforuminside.com/cew-barcelona-madrid-sevilla-mice-train/

ICCA Iberian & France Benelux – Annual Chapter meeting

Barcelona Province, 6-8 March

https://www.iccaworld.org/event/icca-iberian-%26-france-benelux-annual-chapter-meeting/206/

Girona Luxury Travel Event – inVOYAGE

Girona – Costa Brava, 17-20 March

https://www.invoyage.net/events/girona-2024

MPI Iberian Awards

Barcelona, 11 April

https://www.mpi.org/chapters/iberian/citasMPIIberian/2024/04/10/default-calendar/mpi-iberian-awards-2024

Catalunya Business Meetings

Sitges, 03-05 June

https://www.meetings-business.com/

Meet Catalunya

Catalunya, 25-28 June

https://www.catalunya.com/ca/mice

Global MICE Forums Associative

Girona, 02-04 July

https://www.iberianmiceforums.com/

Convening EMEA

Barcelona, 30 September – 02 November

https://www.pcma.org/convening-emea/

IBTM World

Barcelona, 19-21 November

https://www.ibtmworld.com/

• BEFuture, supported by the European Union’s Single Market Programme, offers 30k funding to 80 SMEs for innovative practices in the business events sector.

• Over three years, the project aims to make the industry more sustainable and resilient.

The BEFuture project, led by the Catalan Tourist Board, successfully held an industry Think Tank workshop in Barcelona to positively impact Europe’s business events sector. The workshop was an important step towards realising the project’s goal of developing a more sustainable, regenerative, resilient, and responsible industry by collecting best practices and enhancing the sector’s competitiveness.

“We are delighted and excited to get the opportunity to do this important work together with a strong team of partners. We want to explore alternative business models, together with other ecosystems and make BE a future-proof industry, aligned with current trends and needs.” said Sònia Serracarbasa Head of the Catalunya Convention Bureau (Catalan Tourist Board), at the workshop organised by the project partners during IBTM World in Barcelona.

Since its preliminary launch in September 2023, BEFuture has organised a couple of Think Tank workshops to model future scenarios and will publish a call for best practices addressed to SMEs in February 2024. The project plans training programs, a mapping of key stakeholders, a white paper, and an acceleration program in 2025 offering 30k in funding to at least 80 SMEs from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

The project involves a network of stakeholders, including convention bureaus, BSOs, and international industry associations. The consortium consists of ACT (Agencia Catalana De Turisme), B. Link (B. Link Barcelona Strategic Projects SL), Tipik (Tipik Communication Agency), TVL (Toerisme Vlaanderen), Linkeus, Vdvo (Verband Der Veranstaltungsorganisatoren E.V.), ETFI (Stichting NHL Stenden Hogeschool), Unimib (Universita’ Degli Studi Di Milanobicocca).

BEFuture was awarded a grant by the European Union under the Single Market Programme “Sustainable Growth and Building Resilience in Tourism: to support the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises”.

For more information, view the background document