According to a report published by the Spanish Association of Conference Centres (APCE), its member centres hosted 5,108 events with 4,214,377 attendees in 2010, generating an economic impact of EUR 1,600 million.
According to the aggregate data provided by the APCE's member centres, last year Spanish conference centres hosted a total of 538 congresses attended by 509,126 delegates; in addition to 288 conventions and 1,438 seminars, with 199,293 and 1,438 attendees, respectively. Thanks to this activity, in 2010 Spanish congress centres generated an estimated economic impact in the region of EUR 1,600 million.
An analysis of these results indicates that the number of national and international congresses held has remained stable with respect to 2009, while as regards corporate activity a slight drop was registered. The association's President and CEO of the Valencia Congress Centre, Jose Salinas, stated that "due to the characteristics of the association meeting industry, it has still proved to be less prone to variations than the meetings market, and it has not been so affected by the adverse economic conditions as the convention market, whose falling figures are a symptom of the slowdown in demand registered over the last few years."
About half of the conventions held in Spain are of a national or international nature, representing 60% of the total number of delegates. Furthermore, in the case of national and international congresses, they represent 80% of all events and the total number of attendees.
