The Palma Congress Centre and its hotel, Meliá Palma Bay, under the management of Meliá Hotels International, have hosted 226 events with a total of 76,678 attendees, generating revenues of 15.3 million euros, during 2018, according to the balance of activity of the first full year of operation, after its opening in April 2017. Most of these events have been held in low or medium season, so the venue is consolidated as a key lever to achieve the main strategic objectives of the destination: deseasonalization and tourism diversification.
"These results represent a higher than expected level of compliance with business objectives and show a positive balance for the Palau, which thus anticipates its stage of consolidation in the national and European MICE market," said Ramón Vidal, general manager of the complex.
Vidal also highlighted the importance of national and international events, the main basis of the business, which have had a significant economic impact on the destination by boosting demand for tourist services and complementary offerings. "A reflection of this are the more than 50,000 overnight stays made by business tourists attending these events held at the Palacio de Congresos in the city's hotels in 2018.
In this area, the most relevant examples were the corporate events of Jaguar and Panasonic, which had the participation of 7,000 attendees in total, as well as the holding of major national medical congresses.
Vidal also said that "the volume of local events, 80 in total, shows the great interest of the Mallorcan business and cultural fabric in this space, which aspires to be a catalyst for innovation, culture and social cohesion.
With regard to the management carried out by Meliá Hotels International, the Palau de Congressos de Palma was recognised as the best practice in Corporate Social Responsibility in Spain at the CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism Awards, which demonstrates the integration of the principles of corporate responsibility promoted by the hotel group in its infrastructure management.
In this sense, throughout 2018 it has continued to promote employability, responsible management of the supply chain, the introduction of new eco-efficient technologies, mitigation of their impact on the environment (adopting measures such as the elimination of single-use plastics), sustainable mobility and solidarity initiatives.
Meliá Hotels International highlighted that they measured society's participation in the resources and wealth generated by the activity of the Palacio de Congresos: of the 15.3 million euros of income obtained in 2018, 27% went to personnel, 36% to suppliers, 28% to Public Administrations and 5% to investments in infrastructure. The remaining 4% corresponds to the management company and its shareholders.
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