According to the Business Tourism report published annually by Turespaña, the Spanish business tourism industry continued to register growth in 2006, with a total of 24,261 events held (3,410 more than in 2005). Likewise, the number of participants/delegates increased by 439,007, the highest figure registered in the country to date.
Ranking by autonomous communities
As in previous years, Madrid (19.99%), Catalonia (10.48 %) and Andalusia (13.07% ) lead the field as regards the number of events held in 2006. Likewise, these three destinations received the largest number of participants/delegates, with 19.87, 17.24 and 11.95%, respectively.
The next autonomous communities in the ranking are Asturias, with an 8.88% share of the total number of events held in Spain and 9.07% of participants/delegates, and Valencia, with 6.21 and 6.99%, respectively.
Venue breakdown
With regard to venues, 57.3% of the meetings and congresses held in Spain in 2006 took place in hotel meeting rooms, followed by congress centres (13.5%), auditoriums (8%), universities (4.5%) and other venues (16.7%).
Most popular months
October, May, November, March, September and June, in which 63.8% of all events were held, were the Spanish event industry’s busiest months in 2006. On the contrary, August and July were the quietest, with 1.4 and 4.2%, respectively.
International market
In 2006, the number of international business arrivals was up 354,614 on figures for 2005. Nearly half of them (47%) attended congress, followed by conventions (33.4%) and seminars (19.6%).
Previsions for business tourism
According to analysts, the European event industry will continue to grow during the next 10 years (2007-2017), although below the world average (76.85%). Nevertheless, the Spanish event industry is expected to register an above-average growth (78.36%).
