Top destinations MICE: Spain is a point of reference destination for 2019
Each year different reports are drawn up that provide us with details of which are the most visited destinations world wide. In this case, we are looking at the MICE sector or, what is the same, Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Events. In the report on the Meetings & Events divisions of American Express, one of the most eagerly awaited each year, Spain is in a very good position worldwide. 2 of our cities are included in the top ten MICE destinations most in demand for 2019.
In general, it is foreseen that we are going to observe throughout this year how the sector of corporate events will experiment an increase and growth, which has been a trend in the last few years. As we usually say, the use of company events is, today, one of the communication tools that offers best result and gives greatest prestige to brands.
What kind of event is showing the greatest growth?
Growth is showing in general in all the areas of the MICE sector. But one thing we can confirm, the manner of organising events is changing, giving increasing importance to the use of new technology.
But this new technology business sounds a very general thing. How can it be applied to the events sector? Mobile apps, internet, social networks, streaming, the use of increasingly sophisticated technical material… are only some of the examples.
On the other hand, all the aforementioned tools bring with them, like it or not, a greater control over the guests. We can obtain more details as to what contents are more interesting or achieve greater participation, demographic data, social relations, interests, satisfaction or rapid opinions through surveys…. The list is exceedingly long. In the future we shall have available very valuable information on the type of participant that best contributes to our events.
At the same time we are making life easy for the participants as they will have all the information at a click. They can even attend an event via streaming, without leaving their home or office. Logically, the experience in this last instance is not the same. They cannot capture the full essence of the event (restaurants, activities, atmosphere…), but it is a way of reaching those people to whom you would not be able to accede in any other way, whether a potential client, speaker, delegate….
Therefore, we can say that the main idea of all these changes is that we reach out more to the client and we obtain more details from the client. In this way we can create much more personalised experiences. And this is very important because creating experiences has become one of the main requisites when organising any kind of event. And, in the MICE sector it will be no less so. We can no longer complacently offer a purely traditional event. We have to guarantee that the event is going to have a touch that makes a difference. This objective is paramount among those studied by companies when establishing planning strategy for their events.
What are the MICE destinations most in demand on an international level?
In Europe, the destinations showing greatest growth and that coincide in all the rankings are Spain & Germany. This growth is foreseen to be stable for the next few years.
On a world level the destinations most in demand are Nueva York, London & Hong Kong. But cities like Berlin, Amsterdam or Kuala Lumpur are coming up quickly on this list, with a considerable increase in demand.
Spain is placed among the favourites
Spain is one of the countries receiving greatest demand in the MICE sector. Barcelona & Madrid are the cities that give us the best position in the vast majority of rankings. If we concentrate on Europe the list of preferred cities to hold corporate events would be the following:
A European city that is rapidly rising up the ranks is our neighbour, Lisbon. Currently not occupying a position within the top 10, but it is becoming a strong competitor in this segment. On the other hand, the fact the United Kingdom may leave the European Union may affect these positions. It would seem that Paris would be likely to rise the most positions if this happens.
And how about a top ten of only Spanish cities?
In this case it varies a lot depending on who is doing the survey, the trend in each area of the MICE sector and the seasonality. However, in general terms we could be looking at the following ranking:
In the majority of cases, the cities that are at the forefront as favourites are also those that offer the best air connections with Europe and the rest of the world. However, as we have already commented, this ranking can vary depending on the time of year. Many cities double their number of connections in certain months. Let us not forget that the ease of connection with a destination is one of the fundamental characteristics when deciding on one city or another.
What we can confirm is that throughout 2019, all cities will have to adapt to new trends in the use of technology and to become great generators of experiences.Those cities that also manage to get themselves into position in these areas will be those that show the greatest growth in the next few years.
We hope you have found this article interesting. Please contact us to help you choose the city most suitable to your requirements.
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With a career of over 12 years dedicated to the Tourism Sector and specially to the Meetings and Events Sector, in this blog I share with you all that I consider interesting to bring value to our work. It is sometimes difficult to follow a world moving at such a rapid pace. Stop for a second and navigate these sites written for you. Have a nice day!