Barcelona. Riding a growth wave, ibtm world closed on Thursday in Barcelona where the global industry showed that it was in good shape. Illustrating how the good news is spreading Rob Davidson’s annual Industry Trends Watch Report also showed that corporate, association and incentive travel is on the up.
“Connections means everything” was a theme of the week, and with more than 80,000 appointments scheduled before the start of the show, many more were added with trade visitors. This year levels were at an all time high with Spain’s economic recovery helping the boom and adding extra appointments and business opportunities for the 4,000 Hosted Buyers attending.
“The Spanish economy is clearly on the rise, we knew about it before the show but the stats so far illustrate that the country’s events industry and that of Europe in general is back to centre stage. Many exhibitors have been telling me about the quality of business they are doing with international meeting planners as well as those planning regional specific events in the country,” said Graeme Barnett, Senior Exhibition Director, ibtm world.
This year saw several innovations. The Knowledge program at The ACS Knowledge Village was created on the show floor. The global industry also used ibtm world as their annual meeting place by organizing co-located events which this year included the ICCA Forum for Young Professionals, the AIPC Operations Summit, the CIC Board Meeting, JMIC Board Meeting and the Spain DMC Awards.
