Spain remains one of top MICE Tourism destinations worldwide

The Spain Convention Bureau released last June a report, which measured the MICE activity in the main cities (50) of the country. According to this report, Spain held in 2012 19,913 meetings, which attracted over three million participants. These figures represent a 10.5% increase in the number of events comparing with 2011. Nevertheless, the number of participants decreased by 4.9%.

Both ICCA and the Spain Convention Bureau recently released reports on last year’s activity

Spain has soundly performed during last years as one of world’s top destinations for congresses and meetings. Despite the current economic situation the tourism industry still remains one the development engines for the country. And among the different tourist activities MICE has been long one of top performers. Thus, and according to ICCA Spain ranks third as the country with the highest number of international events after USA and Germany. Good location and communications, attractive climate and gastronomy, historic features and tourism infrastructures may explain these great results.

More events, less participants

The Spain Convention Bureau released last June a report, which measured the MICE activity in the main cities (50) of the country. According to this report, Spain held in 2012 19,913 meetings, which attracted over three million participants. These figures represent a 10.5% increase in the number of events comparing with 2011. Nevertheless, the number of participants decreased by 4.9%.

Source: Spain Convention Bureau

On average events in Spain lasted 2.44 days, a bit less than in 2011. Regarding the scope of the events the national ones are still predominant (46.2%) However the percentage of international events also saw a notorious increase of 14.8%. Despite the stagnated internal demand, Spain is still capable of attracting thousands of international events.

Good times for big cities

In 2012 the two biggest cities in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) have been more successful than the rest of the venues. In these two cases the increase has been just astonishing (+26.8%). No wonder then that according to ICCA’s Madrid and Barcelona rank 4^th and 5^th in the world charts. Vienna, Paris and Berlin are still Top3 cities. In the contrary the Spanish big/mid-sized cities such as Seville or Valencia diminished their stake by 2.1%.

Regarding the focus of the events the health and pharm industries generate the biggest percentage of them all (23.1%) followed by Commercial events (18.8%). In general hotels were the preferred venues for events (34.9%). Congress Centers also hosted over one quarter of all-year’s events (26.9%) For the accommodation of the participants 4-starred hotels were more frequently picked (61.2%).

Taking a look at the MoM activity points out the concentration of events on May and October. This pattern has not changed during the last years. August and July are the weakest months:

Source: Spain Convention Bureau

More events, less participants, more money

The economic impact of MICE activity in 2012 in Spain has also been estimated in SCB’s report: €5,110 billion. The document gives a disaggregated figure of the expenses made by participants and companions. Here we see that participants generate approx. € 4 billion and companions contribute with one more billion. These figures suppose a consolidation of the economic impact after a severe recession in 2009 and 2010.

Last but not least we must have a look at the overall satisfaction of participants. In this sense we can see that the cities and the venues receive good evaluations (above 8/10). For example the architectonic attractions of the cities are rated above 8.6. Only hotel staff sees a decrease in its evaluation (8.35 to 7.91).

Prospects for this 2013 predict a consolidation of last two years’ trends. That would mean a slight increase of the overall number of events, big decrease of participant number and also a big decrease of average expenditure per participant. Are these predictions also valid for the rest of Central and South Europe? Can we foresee a new recession due to the stagnation of the German and French economies? Let’s hope that waves of optimism arrive to Spain’s beaches resulting in more and more events during 2013.