Spain report
Big Spanish steps for events beyond the capitals
CMW REPORTS ON HOW SPANISH SECONDARY CITIES ARE ON THE RISE FOR BUSINESS EVENTS, WITH HIGH-SPEED TRANSPORT CONNECTIONS LINKING THEM MORE CLOSELY THAN EVER
A s meeting professionals
gather again in Barcelona for the IBTM World trade show this November, the event pull of the Catalan capital is well known.
In terms of global rankings Barcelona topped the ICCA rankings for number of conference delegates( 2023) and Cvent’ s Top Meeting Destinations list also in 2023.
While, for 2024 the CVB reported that 2,000 congresses, symposiums, workshops, conventions and incentives had come to the city involving over 734,000 participants.
The EU is also funding many projects impacting business events in Spain.
In Catalonia the BEFuture Project is a € 4.2m programme led by the Catalan government to improve sustainability,
MICE accounts for 8 % of Spain’ s total tourism nationally, while the average expenditure per business tourist is triple that of leisure tourist.
Left: The Prado Museum inclusiveness and resilience in the MICE sector. It includes potential subsidies to up to 80 SMEs(€ 30,000 per company) in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
In Catalonia, the authorities say a total of 1,312,900 business visitors spend € 1.55bn annually.
Madrid’ s capital pull for planners is also strong with 192 global destinations connecting directly by air via 76 airlines. Connectivity is further boosted by Europe’ s second largest Metro network. The city is simply an economic powerhouse, the 5th biggest region by GDP in the EU and the second safest European capital. Madrid has nearly 12,000 foreign-owned companies, many organising events of course and the capital is a front-runner in digital infrastructure, business and transportation, as well as being a real talent hub.
The city has also, in recent years, built a reputation as a specialist in sustainable meetings.
The Madrid Convention Bureau is rightly proud of its PLUS sustainability tool for events: a digital platform designed to assist organisers manage the environmental impact and legacy of their events.
Aligned with the UN’ s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, PLUS helps generate sustainability reports for each meeting held in the city.
There is also a CO2 calculator that enables organisers to calculate the carbon footprint of events.
Infrastructural investment continues apace and in May 2025 Madrid’ s regional government approved a project to rebuild Palacio de Congresos with a new capacity over 5,000 seats, outside the city centre.
Not standing still in this market has helped Madrid leapfrog( into 2nd place) Barcelona( 3rd place) for the first time in the 2025 Meetings & Events Forecast Top Meetings Destinations study by American Express GBT.
26 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / ISSUE 139