More meetings, fewer participants

According to the report of the Spain Convention Bureau (SCB), our country hosted a total of 19,913 meetings, 10.5% more than in 2011 – with the participation of more than 3 million people, or 4.9% less, with an average of 152 attendees per meeting.

The SCB, that involves 57 Spanish destinations, has published the Annual Report 2012, a study that has been doing for fifteen years has sampled 50 of the cities that integrate. The data show the recovery of the number of meetings, almost 4,000 more than in 2010, which now exceeds its 2008 levels.

The international meetings grew in 2012, confirming the trend of previous years, accounting for 25.8% of the total. In 2012, more than 940,000 foreign visitors attended meetings in Spain, representing 31.1% of the participants. National meetings also increased to 9205, representing 46.2% of the total.

The study shows, once again, that the two cities of over one million inhabitants, Madrid and Barcelona, have the highest rates of meetings and participants and also experienced the largest growth in the number of meetings (26.8%).

Medium-sized cities (between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants) and between this figure and the 500,000 inhabitants, grew both in number of meetings, 6% and 9%, respectively, and participants, 9.6% and 1%, respectively. The cities of less than 100,000 inhabitants got a 28% drop in the number of visitors.

Each participant spent an average of 653 euros. The sum translates into an economic impact (direct expenditure) of 5,110 million euros, representing an increase of 1.7% over 2011.

Seasonality follows the same trend. The months with the highest activity are May and October, followed by June and November.

A third of the meetings were held in hotel rooms (35%). In 2012 there was an increase of 2.5% of the events held in conference centers, to reach 27% of the total.

The average duration of the meetings was 2.44 days, with a slight decrease over the previous year, but higher than in 2010.