The Barcelona Convention Bureau Updates the Virtual Edition of ITBM

The Barcelona Convention of Turisme de Barcelona, has closed the IBTM edition, that this year has been celebrated virtually, with a balance of 35 appointments and 5 new possible projects for Barcelona at the corporate sphere to be developed in the following years in order to host these congresses in Barcelona.

From 2004, when the IBTM arrived in Barcelona, this year it has been the first time with a virtual edition, but, the next year it will come back to Barcelona and its confirmed until the of 2022. So, during this 3 days of the most important congress event that is celebrated in Barcelona, the BCB team, has ran various meetings with international clients from all over the MICE segment such as, agencies, associations, event planners with the main purpose to recover the congresses in the destination Barcelona as soon as on-site events will come back. United States has been the market that has showed more interest for corporative events as well as Latin America which is considered as an emergent market.

A part from the personal meetings, the Barcelona Convention Bureau also have attended the conference program with some currently topics such as technology, management of the crisis, sustainability and future trends.

Looking into the 2021, if the situation allows, 30 big congresses are expected in Barcelona, notably among the MWC, the ISE, the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the Seafood Expo Global.

Under the BCB Turisme de Barcelona umbrella, have participated the Baix Llobregat Convention Bureau, the Penedès Tourist Promotion Consortium, the Sitges Convention Bureau and Barcelona Provincial Council. As Turisme de Barcelona Members, also have participated the CCIB, Fira de Barcelona, and Hotel Renaissance Barcelona.

The IBTM is one of the must-attended events with international great importance for the projection of Barcelona as a meeting destination but also allows to measure the strength of Barcelona in terms of the congress activity, as firm commitment of the organizers for the city.

ICCA Elections

Furthermore, the International Congress and Convention Association, ICCA, has celebrated new elections at Iberian Chapter Presidency, where Christoph Tessmar has been re-elected as president. The Barcelona Convention Bureau Director has obtained the recognition of all the Assembly members to fill this office in ICCA for Spain and Portugal for the following two years, 2021-2022.

This is a very good news because locates Barcelona, trough the BCB Director, in a very important place with an internationally projection as the international association of congresses and events.

The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) is the leading worldwide organization concerning international meetings, founded in 1963, to look for and sharing information about congresses and conventions at the tourism industry and for gather the best specialists in the service sector, transportation and international events organization. The ICCA network, d in Amsterdam, it has more than one thousand companies and corporations in more than 88 countries in all over the world, and it has a big clients data which organizes international meetings and events apart from implement studies and research about the meeting tourism. ICCA is organized in different chapters. The Iberian Chapter incorporates Spain and Portugal and gather more than 60 specialized members in the business tourism. From its foundation, the main ive of this section has been to host new congresses and events inside the countries allowing its members to highlight in the events organization. Each year, the meeting is combined between both countries, this year the Porto has been the elected city.

Christoph Tessmar considers that this election confirms the Barcelona confidence and shows the vitality and the importance of the city concerning the meetings but also Turisme de Barcelona as official body promotion in the organizations of congresses and meetings. Tessmar has highlighted “is a great honour to work from ICCA to contribute to facing the challenges that the pandemic has left and that way to participate in projects for helping in the excellence of the companies connected to the congresses”.

The Barcelona Convention Bureau programme is the responsible body of the Barcelona promotion as a MICE destination, it works also preparing all the candidacies and projects to host meetings in Barcelona. One of the most remarkable aspects in the meeting tourism is its contribution to deseasonalise and decentralize the tourist activity in the destinations as well as the legacy in terms of knowledge in the different subjects of the covered matters.