As a European city, Barcelona is a favourite location for tourists; overtaking city break favourites such as Venice and Paris in recent years, but the city also has a big draw for business. Perhaps Barcelona’s “central European” location has something to do with it. If you were to draw a perfect circle around all of Europe and then find the exact centre, Barcelona is not far off, making it a logical choice for Businesses to hold their annual conferences or congresses here. There are current works at Barcelona’s main airport (El Prat) going on to expand and add a 4th runway, and Barcelona also has over 40 low-cost flights arriving daily, making it fairly cheap for delegates to arrive as well. The recent completion of the AVE fast train from Madrid also makes the once tedious train journey from the Spanish Capital now a breeze at 3 hours.

Finding accommodation is never a problem in Barcelona, with over 45,000 hotel beds on stand by, not to mention a substantial offer of tourist apartments. The city of Barcelona is fairly small and compact – through geographical constraints, with The Mediterranean Sea and Tibidabo Mountain on either side, then Montjüic Mountain on the other – again easing the common problems of navigating a new city to prospective visitors or delegates. Barcelona has a fantastic transport infrastructure, with buses, trains and metros all interlinked, meaning no need for various tickets/passes.

Perhaps the main conference area is that around Plaça España, known as “Fira de Barcelona”. 3, 5 million people pass through the doors of the Fira with more than 150 shows and fairs choosing this space. For the past 4 years, this has been proud host to perhaps one of the biggest and most important conferences in the world – the 3GSM mobile phone conference. The location of the Fira as still fairly central, and only 20 minutes away from the airport in a taxi means that it provides easy access to visitors and hosters alike, as well as having the spectacular backdrop of the National Catalan Palace with the Magic Fountains of Montjüic and the Olympic Flame burning in the middle of the fountains at Plaça España.

Located at the opposite end of Barcelona, just near the Forum Park is the CCIB, or the International conference Centre of Barcelona. This has capacity for 15,000 people in a 67,000 square metre building and is the biggest in Southern Europe. This conference centre, despite its location being not as handy, enjoys year round occupancy and has been host to some very important medical conferences in recent years.

There are some smaller venues in the city including the Maremagnum complex at the bottom of Las Ramblas, overlooking the sea, Marquees that can be put up in the Zoo’s grounds as well as venues up on Montjüic and with the new high tech all wi-fi business neighbourhood of “22@” nearing completion, it looks like Barcelona will remain as a forerunner for many companies when deciding to host a European conference for many years to come.

About the Author:
David writes about Barcelona apartments for groups and Cheap Barcelona apartments.

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