According to Amparo Fernandez, the secretary general of tourism, who was one of the speakers at the XX Congress of the Spanish Federation of PCOs, the Spanish congress, meeting and incentive industry will grow 50% in the next 10 days,
An essential segment for the Spanish tourist industry
In the opinion of Fernandez, the event industry is responsible for 10% of the total number of international tourist arrivals in Spain, as well as a helping to seasonally adjust the Spanish tourist industry.
Amparo Fernandez also explained that the strategic plan for Spanish tourism “Horizonte 2020”, which aims to provide the foundations and framework for establishing lines of work, strategies and policies for the sector in the coming years, is currently being drafted.
Average spending of 600 euros per day
During the congress, Julio Abreu, the president of the Spanish Federation of PCOs, submitted the results of a study on the event industry, conducted by the Spanish Convention Bureaus, which invoiced approximately 490 million euros in 2006, with an average daily spending of 600 euro per delegate.
Likewise, he stressed that nearly 398,000 people participated in the congresses and meetings organised by companies belonging to the Spanish Convention Bureaus. In 2006, Spanish PCOs organised 248 local and regional, 296 national and 95 international congresses, as well as 2,917 meetings of which 2,270 had more than 50 participants.
