Meet Catalunya 2024 – Green edition – homage to sustainability

Improving sustainability is key to future proofing Catalonia as a business events destination, CCB director Sonia Serracarbassa told delegates at its biennial networking event, Meet Catalunya 2024. Simon George reports. The colour green in all its shades was very evident during Meet Catalunya 2024 – Green edition, a MICE workshop/networking event hosted by the Catalan Tourist Board and Catalunya Convention Bureau (CCB). From the Catalan countryside which was looking much greener after a wet spring helped to replenish dangerously low reservoir levels, to the emphasis on sustainability at the three hotel site inspections in Barcelona, Green was the name of the programme. Mention should also be made of the event’s official launch host, the 5-star Hotel Camiral, whose immaculate putting surfaces on its PGA golf course are enough to make any golfer green with envy! Sustainability key to future-proofing events Attended by over 75 event professionals and 87 Catalan companies, and incorporating some 1,500 business meetings, Meet Catalunya 2024’s three-day programme, which began at the Hotel Camiral in Girona and ended in Barcelona, showcased the rich variety of opportunities the region has to offer for business events, while placing special emphasis on the importance of sustainability. In her presentation at the event, CCB director Sònia Serracarbassa singled out the importance of sustainability in future-proofing the business events industry. Presentations were made by local convention bureaux at the official launch and low-cost carrier Vueling explained its plan to transition to sustainable aviation fuel. Protecting the environment was front and centre of our three hotel site inspections in Barcelona: the recently opened 4-star Tembo, Labtwentytwo Barcelona, part of Marriott Group, which opened in December 2023, and the 5-star Intercontinental which gave us a short PowerPoint presentation on the theme. Our group’s guided walking tour of 22@, a smart city/innovation district led by an architectural expert later highlighted how sustainability is be-fture.euing used to improve mobility and regenerate previously run-down industrial areas in Barcelona, for which the 1992 summer Olympics proved so transformational. Sustainability lies at the heart of BEFuture, an EU-funded programme that aims to transform Europe’s business events sector through sustainability, inclusivity and resilience (for more details go to https://be-future.eu). Sònia Serracarbassa elaborated on Catalonia’s/Spain’s own participation in the programme, which was launched in September 2023 with €4m funding in partnership with five other EU members (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands) and is scheduled to be completed in April 2026. A White Paper highlighting the programme’s findings will be published in the autumn and presented at IBTM in November. “We are exploring how the new business model for business events should look in 10 years’ time (2035) if as an industry we still want to be around. We need to be resilient as an industry but we also need to be competitive. We need to drive the industry… organisations, public institutions and convention bureaux to make this transition more sustainable but also more digital. That’s why we launched this project and asked the EU for funding,” she said. Automotive drive In Catalonia, the business events sector is more active than ever and has recovered well from the pandemic, according to the CCB’s director. Catalonia is very strong in the automotive sector (SEAT is based in Barcelona) and the hotel Tembo is hosting a car launch in September, for example. So, too, in sport (football, Formula 1, basketball, the Americas Cup, which Barcelona is currently hosting). Food and biotech are also key MICE sectors and Barcelona is becoming more integrated into the blue economy (ocean resources). In terms of revenue generation, individual spending by delegates visiting the region for congresses or business events is 32% up on average on 2019, Narcís Ferrer, the director of the Catalan Tourism Agency, told delegates at the event. Challenges remain Of course, Catalonia wants to attract more MICE business, Serracarbassa acknowledged, but inevitably there is a flip side, namely the social impact of business events and the dangers posed by overtourism. Like Venice, Prague and Amsterdam, Barcelona is routinely cited as falling into this category, something which the authorities are well aware of and keen to address. For example, Barcelona’s mayor recently announced that from 2028 foreign tourists will be prohibited from renting apartments in the city (see more on this issue on pages 38-39). Hence the importance not only of being green and sustainable but of attracting the right type of business event that adds value by having a positive local impact, the CCB’s director emphasised. Barcelona Convention Bureau’s Núria Muñoz who was quick to allay concerns. She explained the Catalan authorities will implement the Generalitat’s decree regulating tourist-use housing (HUT) to recover up to 10,100 apartments for residential rather than holiday use, and that all HUTs will disappear five years after the decree comes into effect. However, as Barcelona has a wide range of hotels and tourist apartments (regulated by the Apartur association), she said the measure will pose no problems in terms of the ability to accommodate visitors. Buyer feedback Mike Mahoney, the managing director of FC Sport Experiences Ltd, was full of praise for the Meet Catalonia 2024 event, telling CMW: “With golf, wellness, and football pitches onsite, and a popular destination for cycling, Hotel Camiral was the perfect location for the first part of Meet Catalunya as it provides a great platform for a wide range of incentive programming. “Our educational trip to Costa Dorada provided plenty of inspiration. From a sustainability perspective, dining almost exclusively on locally sourced produce was not only a responsible choice but guaranteed that we were offered meals prepared with the freshest of ingredients. “Our visit to Tarragona allowed a brief history lesson and the city’s Roman past is brought to life with its amphitheatre and the remains of its arena as well as the walls and ruins around the city centre. “Catalonia has so much to offer and is a treasure trove of possibilities for meeting and event planners. There is no doubt that delegates to an event in Catalonia are in for a memorable experience.”