The Catalunya Convention Bureau presents the reactivation plan of meetings industry in Catalonia
The Director of the Agència Catalana de Turisme (ACT), David Font, accompanied by the Mayor of Reus, Carles Pellicer, opened, on the 10th of July, the Members Conference of the Catalunya Convention Bureau (CCB) which brought together, partially attending, more than one hundred professionals from the Catalan sector of meetings tourism.
Due to the situation caused by COVID-19, this annual gathering has become a hybrid format with partial attendance combined with participants who followed the event live and participating through steaming. The conference in Reus represented a reunion of the MICE industry (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Events) in Catalonia and is the first attended event of the ACT with members taking all the safety and hygiene measures in force.
From the start of the pandemic, the tourist industry has been one that has suffered the consequences most and business tourism, one of the most affected products. Moreover, the medium and long-term perspectives are still uncertain. Font confirmed that “in this stage of starting activity again, and still with a lot of uncertainty, we must work to reactivate the industry. From the ACT and in agreement with the trusts of the provincial councils and the regional convention bureaux, we have tackled and worked on the reactivation plane of the MICE sector in Catalonia which we present today”.
In this sense, the professionals attending the conference were informed by the Agència Catalana de Turisme of the Company and Knowledge Department, of the keys to the recovery of this sector and some of the initiatives of the specific reactivation plan that will be set into motion, reACT MICE Catalunya. “This plan”, stated the director of the ACT, “aims to position the Catalunya brand as a MICE destination with a proposal of future value that make us more competitive in the long term, with a clear commitment to sustainability, digitalisation, and to the legacy of the events, which means the social return they can have on the local community of the host destination”.
This plan emerges from a series of online meetings with professionals from the MICE sector from public and private spheres and contemplates actions in training, communication and commercial aspects, among others, as well as strengthening data analysis.
The session also included talks about tendencies, technological solutions and collaborative tools, as well as spaces for debate and reflection.
