Success of Meetings Exhibition in Barcelona Gets Praised

Results from last year’s edition of EIBTM, an annual global meetings and incentives exhibition in the city of Barcelona, Spain, have been overwhelmingly positive and demonstrated a healthy boom in business for the industry at all levels.

Predictions from exhibitors indicate that the three days of dynamic trading has generated success and new business opportunities results beyond their expectations with new business opportunities well beyond their expectations.

Over 34,000 appointments between Hosted Buyers and exhibitors were scheduled in advance of EIBTM 2006, an increase of 27 percent on the previous year. The event saw an 11 percent increase in Hosted Buyers with 98 percent of all pre-scheduled appointments being attended throughout the three days.

The EIBTM post event research revealed that 99 percent of Hosted Buyers were satisfied with their participation in terms of meeting their commercial objectives and 98 percent of hosted buyers would recommend to their colleague that they visit EIBTM. 80 percent stated that they would place over 20,000 euros worth of specific business as a result of attending EIBTM.

EIBTM 2006 also saw an enlarged floor area of new exhibitors and increased stand space from over 50 exhibitors, including Greece, Germany, Canadian Tourism Commission, Turkey, Venezuela, Romania, Tourism Malaysia, Greater Miami CVB, Starwood Hotels and Colombia.

Strong exhibitor representation from Central and South America was supported by Paraguay, El Salvador and Uruguay all participating at EIBTM for the first time. Other newcomers to EIBTM 2006 were, amongst others, Montenegro and Marina D’Or.