Catalunya Convention Bureau bet on mice tourism at IBTM World
The Catalunya Convention Bureau aims to position Catalonia as a leading destination in tourism for meetings, congresses, conventions and incentive trips. That is why it has recently participated in the fair held in Barcelona
In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Sonia Serracarbassa, director of the Catalunya Convention Bureau, which belongs to the Catalan Tourism Agency.
What does participating in this fair mean to you?
For us, especially considering that the fair takes place here in Barcelona, this positioning and visualization is more than important and strategic. It is the best promotional action we can do during the year because it allows the entire industry to get to know the destination directly. Furthermore, being here we facilitate access to companies in Catalonia so that they can do business and connect with event organizers.
What are the main new developments that you would like to highlight on this occasion?
In our case, we just held a press conference in which we presented a European project, which is one of the first that is cross-border, that is, it connects six countries and eight partners of different types to work on innovation and exploration of how they have to be the events of the future. Yesterday and today we have had a whole series of international meetings and exploration workshops and we will have news for the next 30 months. In addition, the Catalan Tourism Agency and Catalonia Convention Bureau are working hard on accessible and sustainable events. We also began to work on the issue of impact, which are trends that are being worked on and represent a need to make our sector more competitive, resilient and responsible with the destination. But if we move on to product, I would highlight the segmentation strategy that we have started with differentiated value proposals for specific sectors or industries with a large volume of events, such as Meetings and Mobility and Meetings and Sports.
How have you been promoting yourself throughout this time and what is your plan for next season?
The promotion we have done is this rethinking and reorientation to be a more responsible, sustainable destination with a lower impact. This goes towards a segmentation strategy that makes us more competitive through more efficient and specific marketing. In Catalonia we are strong and there are a number of important events that can reinforce strategic sectors, such as mobility and sports. The idea is to continue segmenting in the coming years in terms of technology, health sciences, biotech and food.