The Barcelona International Convention Centre closed last year with 113 hosted events and an increased sales revenues of 24.5%. In 2014 the year of its 10th anniversary, the Barcelona grounds hosted major events such as GI Cancer, CineEurope, Gartner or the Finals of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating.
BARCELONA – The Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB) closed 2014 with 113 hosted events, with a new record in a single year since its opening, with a total of 396,000 delegates and visitors. This excellent year has also registered sales revenues which are 24.5% higher than last year.
The CCIB Managing Director, Marc Rodriguez, affirms, “we are pleased with these excellent results precisely in the tenth anniversary of our operation and we expect to maintain this high performance level for the next two years, which certifies the clear recovery of the international events organisation market, especially in the corporate sector, which represented 51% of the events hosted this year”. Ten years after the conclusion of the Universal Forum of Cultures, CCIB has consolidated its role as one of the premier Business Tourism benchmarks of the city and headquarters for large conferences and corporate meetings at a European and International level, with a total of 918 events hosted since its inauguration with over 4,255,000 participants. At the end of 2014, the accumulated economic impact generated revenues of over 3,300 million euros in the city.
International events represented 87% of the sales turnover although this figure was similar for national events. Especially noteworthy is the growth in events at the international level, which rose 19% in comparison with last year. The majority of CCIB customers are from the UK, USA and Central Europe.
With regards to Conferences, we highlight among others: the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), which assembled over 10,000 delegates from 120 countries in May. CCIB hosted this European conference in 2008 and note that Barcelona is the only city to have hosted this conference twice in the last ten years; ESICM LIVE, the Conference of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, one of the most important European scientific events in 2014, celebrated in September with 5,500 participants; the 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health, in which 3,300 delegates from governments, civil society and the scientific community held debates about tuberculosis, considered to be “the forgotten disease” and of course, the World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer (GI Cancer), which in 2014 celebrated its 10th consecutive edition at CCIB, and was attended by 3,600 delegates.
In the Corporate sector, CCIB hosted outstanding international meetings, several of which clearly show the customer loyalty of large corporations, such as the fourth consecutive edition of the International Gartner Symposium ITXPO, with 8,000 participants and 138 exhibitors; also the fourth consecutive edition of the Distributors Convention of the European Film Industry, CineEurope, which have confirmed their desire to remain in Barcelona until at least 2017 or the world launch of the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone.
Trade Fairs and Shows such as STS Beauty Barcelona, Expopell, Security Forum, Bcn & Cake or Fira Magic, among others, comprise 25% of the clientele who have renewed their trust in the Centre.
With regards to the type of hosted events, the main novelty in 2014 was the first celebration of a first class international sports competition such as the Finals of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, last December. This competition was a major organisational and technical challenge, with the temporary installation of an ice rink of 1,800 m2, surrounded by a tier of 5,500 seats, warehouses, scoreboards and warm-up zone, dressing rooms, etc.
CCIB continues its firm commitment to environmental respect, not only through its strict waste and recycling policy, but also by the CO2 emissions compensation which its activity generates as a business; as well as ongoing support to charity projects and continual improvements to achieve the best energy efficiency. In 2014, its management company published its 3rd CSR Report, to become the first Spanish company in the tourism sector -and ranked 10th in this sector worldwide – to prepare this report in accordance with the G4 Guide directives of the GRI.
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