Meetings tourism brings more revenue than ever to Barcelona

20-06-2019 | Barcelona Convention Bureau

The economic impact of meetings tourism on Barcelona surpassed 1,901 million euros in 2018, a record figure to date. Overnight stays by congress and convention delegates came to 2,393,252, representing an increase of 7.4%. The average stay by delegates was around 5 days (4.9 for congresses and 4.3 for conventions). Barcelona remained in the top 5 cities by number of meetings, hosting 1,728 last year.

Spain continues to be the main source market for meetings visitors, followed by the USA (21% of the total), UK (20.5%), France (12.9%) and Germany (11.3%).

Non-hotel spending by delegates went up to 188,69 euros a day (182,08 in 2017) in the case of congresses, and 99 euros in the case of conventions.