Barcelona joins the top three global cities as a congress destination

professional travel is good business for the world’s major cities, creating less overcrowding than general tourism but healthy economic results. in barcelona it generates every year some €1,500m and also has pushed the city into the third position of the icca’s (the international congress and convention association) 2015 worldwide ranking, ahead of cities such as london or madrid. this ranking doesn’t consider just general business travel, but concentrates on cities that have meetings organised by associations, that are held on a regular basis, and have at least 50 delegates, while rotating between at least three countries. 

besides its great infrastructures and professional capacity to absorb great amounts of business travellers, barcelona’s success in this field is also due to the work of the barcelona convention bureau that has managed to position the city as an attractive venue in front of competition from other major capitals that invest enormous sums in promotional activity. as regards specific figures, in 2015 the city received 600,000 professional travellers (including meetings, congresses, conventions and incentive trips), with the tendency for this year shows similar or higher levels. 2017, however, is expected to be a record-breaking year in terms of business travel for barcelona.