Excitement and pride as Barcelona and Catalunya prepares to welcome the world's premiere congress trade fair, the EIBTM.
The event kicks off this November 30th - December 2nd and for the next five years the EIBTM will be held in Barcelona.
The whole of the city's tourism sector -businesses, institutions, and administrations- have promised to make these the best years yet for the EIBTM.
Exhibitors and hosted buyers the world over have all welcomed the move to Barcelona. Now it just remains for the city to perform as it best knows how.
Barcelona and Catalunya tourism boards and institutions (Turisme de Barcelona, Turisme de Catalunya, and Diputació) are preparing to welcome EIBTM in style with a classic "Catalan Rumba" party on Tuesday 30th November. All the key players are invited!
And Turisme de Barcelona will be providing the EIBTM with its star Congress Card product, which offers big savings on entrance fees to museums and tourism sights, restaurants, night-clubs, shops and even car hire. It is also doubles as a public travel pass for the bus, metro and FGC urban rail network.
Undoubtedly, this EIBTM is a chance for Barcelona to show itself off to the best connected and most influential decision makers in the world congress business, so on November 29th Turisme de Barcelona will lay on special Barcelona city tours so everyone can get to see what the city has to offer.
The EIBTM looks like being a big hit with more net space contracted out than last editions. So let's go EIBTM.

Airy Garrigosa
Directora BCB

The Born

The Born is one of the quaintest quarters in Barcelona, bursting with small streets hugging the skirt of the Santa Maria del Mar church, whose high stain glass windows and impressive dome dominate the area. Nearby street cafés, restaurants and trendy bars bubble. And here you'll find some of the best boutique shopping with the likes of shirt designers Custo. Try a glass of sparkling Cava at one of the many café bars and move on the world renowned Picasso Museu along Carrer Montcada.

Ciutat Vella and the Rambles

The Rambles makes Ciutat Vella one of the most amazing places in the world to visit, as it runs down to the sea from Plaza Catalunya. Every step brings new sights, sounds and smells. The Rambles is a sea of people and peoples from every corner of the world -some busy on their way to work, others -like tourists- just sapping up the atmosphere.

Halfway down, don't miss out on what is probably the best food market in the world, the Boqueria Market, with its colourful fishmongers, fruit and vegetable stalls. Look for the human sculptures -rigid in their pose- until a passer-by drops a coin in their hat; then they glide into action. Behind the market you'll stumble upon gems like the MACBA contemporary art museum and dozens of bistros. Further down the Rambles, on Nou de la Rambla, Gaudí built one of his first amazing constructions, the Palau Güell.

Eixample

Vibrant and buzzing, the block system of streets characterises the Eixample mid-town quarter, with its plush tree-lined roads and snazzy high street shops. Home to the University of Barcelona and museums like the Tapies Foundation, the city's main art galleries are located around the Passeig de Gràcia area, one of Barcelona's smartest streets. Take a stroll here, and you'll find lots of outdoor cafés. Gaudí's incredible Casa Milà (the Pedrera) and other Moderniste architecture adorn the Eixample. The shopping is great here too.

Gràcia

Gràcia retains its original small-town feel, with low apartment blacks and many terraced houses. The best of Gràcia is about sitting in one of its pretty plazas, reading a book or just watching the world go past. At night the Plaza del Sol really livens up with restaurants and terrace bars overflowing, while the Plaza del Relotge stays quieter. The shops here are still pretty much family run, so you can often find unique items.

Diagonal

Diagonal runs from the Northwest of the city down to the sea, some 10 kms away. But the main part between Maria Cristina and Passeig de Gràcia is home to some of the best shops in town.

All the exclusive brands are here. Many of the city's night-clubs like Luz de Gas or Bikini are found here too, so it's very much a place to be by day and night.

Montjuïc

Mount Montjuïc is the hill overlooking downtown Barcelona. Besides being home to a part of the city trade fair, Montjuïc is also a place of culture with the Miró Foundation, MNAC Catalan Art Museum and CaixaForum, a contemporary art museum. This is an ideal place for walking -a sort of Barcelona Central Park.

You can really spend a whole day on Montjuïc, either visiting the Olympic facilities like the Lluís Companys Stadium or perhaps taking a dip in the Picornell Swimming. At the top you'll get a great view over the town; walk down through the Joan Brossa park or stop off at the Botanical Garden.

Forum

For a glimpse of the future, make for the Diagonal Mar and Forum area, with its high-tech landscape and huge solar panels the size of a football pitch. This area is worth a trip just to see the new Forum Building Auditorium and the International Barcelona Convention Centre, both cutting-edge facilities. The Forum area overlooks the Mediterranean and on a crisp blue-sky day, it's ideal for enjoying the sunshine.

Barceloneta and the Villa Olimpica

There are 4 kms of quality beaches running along Barcelona's shoreline. From Barceloneta to the Forum area, you can stroll, bike or even skate the whole stretch. Stop-off at the Olympic Port for lunch in any of the many eateries there.

On the port side of Barceloneta, there's plenty to do with restaurants lining the boulevard, which overlooks the marina. In the middle of the port there's the Maremagnum destination shopping centre with boutiques open 365 days a year. At night there are discos and bars which stay open till the early hours.

Barcelona's hotel capacity has seen massive improvements both in terms of offer and the quality of that offer. Three quality hotels have opened theeir doors recently that we are sure you'll want to know about:

Hotel Torre Catalunya

Expo Hoteles & Resort has just opened a splendid superior four-star hotel right at the heart of Barcelona, close to the main trade fair facilities on Montjuïc and the main Sants train station, which is also the future stop for the high-speed AVE train. The 23-storey hotel boasts 272 rooms (259 rooms and 13 suites), a SPA, a gym, a panoramic restaurant on the 23rd floor, 7 meeting rooms and an Auditorium for 100 delegates.

Hotel Icaria Barcelona

SB Hotels have opened a luxury four-star hotel in the heart of the Olympic Village and new technology development 22@, just minutes away from the Nova Icaria beach. Fully wired with Wi-Fi technology, this hotel oozes elegance. Its 180 rooms and highly flexible meetings rooms make it ideal for any event. This hotel has a refreshing and very Mediterranean feel to it.

Hotel Casa Fuster

After its recent opening, the Hotel Casa Fuster is one of those select establishments to have entered the Five-star Grand Luxury Landmark category. Part of the Hoteles Center Group, this hotel is located in what is one of the city's most emblematic buildings, the Casa Fuster, at the top of the city's most prestigious boulevard, Passeig de Gràcia. The refurbishment has been done exquisitely, embellishing the building's original features. Its 96 rooms boast quality, comfort and the most up-to-date facilities.

Last September 26th the Universal Forum of Cultures Barcelona 2004 closed its doors after 141 splendid days. Never before has anything quite so ambitious been organised: a cultural forum speaking about the conditions for peace, sustainability and cultural diversity.

Although Barcelona's Forum has ended, it's just the start for this event. Mexico's Monterrey has already said it will organise a second edition based on the same format in 2007.

This summer the Forum had over 3.3 million visits - a remarkable success considering this was the first ever Forum. Perhaps we should remember that the first editions of the Olympics didn't go nearly as well!

But how will the Forum Barcelona be remembered?

On an international level, it has already become a benchmark and generator of the sort of values that are needed to guarantee future generations' well being. Barcelona is more progressive and more cosmopolitan for having held the Forum.

The city, meanwhile, has been able to redevelop a brownfield site into a shinning example of new millennium urban living. Its new facilities that will bring economic and social benefits for many years to come, especially for the city's congress sector thanks to the 15,000-delegate Barcelona International Congress Centre and the Forum Building's Auditorium.

Visitors certainly enjoyed themselves: they gave it high marks: 7 out of 10 on average!

Exhibitions

And the star show of Forum 2004 was the "Warriors of Xi'an" which attracted 1.16 m people or some 5,000-7,000 visitors daily. The exhibition was made up of 12 priceless terracotta figures and 130 pieces from the Chinese Imperial Qin and Han dynasties.

The second most visited was an exhibition on linguistic diversity, called "Voices", receiving 872,214 visits, while that of "Cities-Corners" got 831,625 visits.

In city museums there was an avalanche of 24 Forum-related exhibitions of which many got rave reviews. Most notable were "Picasso: War and Peace" with 191,291 visitors at the Museu Picasso followed by "The Beauty of Failure, the Failure of Beauty" at Fundació Miró (173,420 visitors) and "Body and the Cosmos" at the Pedrera (126,120 visits).

Museums in Barcelona achieved record visitor numbers, showing the quality and depth of the Forum shows.

Dialogues

Perhaps most successful in the this Forum were the 50 debates and conferences (called Dialogues) which focused on such diverse Forum issues as developing countries' water usage, the future of sustainable economic development, or language acquisition. Some 2,400 speakers took part, with the likes of professors Derek Bickerton, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov, Economy Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz. Apart from the conferences, which almost 70,000 people attended, audiences were given the chance to take part in a question and answer session every day of the Forum with leading thinkers.

Festival of the Arts

The Forum served up a veritable feast of theatre, shows, dance and cabaret this summer with premieres by the likes of star director Peter Brookes amongst others.

And an amazing 1.5 million took in a street shows down by the beach area, while some 600,000 watch the La Mercè firework show, which was staged in the bay just in front of the Forum area.

If you need first hand information on Barcelona to organise your professional meeting event then look no further than the new BCB webpage on the new city tourism board site at Barcelonaturisme.com. Congress professionals can consult special congress products, information on venues, and of course general information on the city. And to bring extra added value there's a personalised request form where you can get independent advice quickly and efficiently from our dedicated staff.



SITE, the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives, has announced it will hold its International Conference in Barcelona. From November 18th - December 3rd 2006, the world's top incentives professionals will gather in Barcelona to take part in educational seminars and other networking events. SITE is the only international, not-for-profit, professional association devoted to the pursuit of excellence in incentive travel.		© SITE

Barcelona undoubtedly belongs to a select club of the world's top business travel destinations and especially congress cities. Its position in this highly lucrative and competitive sector will get a huge boost this November 1 st when the International Congress Centre of Barcelona (CCIB) opens.

The CCIB will bring freshness to the city's congress sector and complement its current tourism offer, meaning Barcelona can easily deal with the huge congresses that we see today.
And with thousands of new hotel rooms coming online over the last few years, Barcelona is sure to boost its prestige as a top congress venue.

"This city has forged its leadership because it is attractive, its mature tourism offer, and the great promotion job done Barcelona Convention Bureau," says Patricia Alviz, head of marketing and sales at CCIB.

The CCIB looks like bringing new zeal to Barcelona, with thousands of delegates expected to come over the next few years

"For the 2005-2007 period some 120 congresses have already been booked in, with many of these big medical events. And booking requests are already reaching as far a 2113," says Alviz.

The CCIB is different because of its huge capacity for 15,000 delegates, with added value through a highly flexible hall and module system. It's easy to get to and next to the sea, making it a sure winner.

Barcelona plays in the top league of congress cities along with European cities like Vienna, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Paris.

Congress organisers are excited by this new Barcelona facility.

Alviz says: "They like its high-tech look, the beautiful Forum Building with its spectacular auditorium which is linked to the CCIB underground, its capacity with 11,249 m² of clear column-free space, access for loading and off-loading, and the capacity for loading 12 trucks simultaneously."

Its high tech facilities and services and its location by the sea, set against the new landscape of the Forum area, with its sustainability kudos are also CCIB strong points.