From October 5th more than 8,000 of the world’s leading decision makers in sustainable development, including leading representatives from governments, NGOs, business, the UN and academia will meet together in Barcelona for 10 days to debate, share, network, learn, and decide on key issues designed to create a more sustainable world.

IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges. IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network.

With more than 700 events and debates, the congress will be played out in the Barcelona International Convention Centre. The event will again provide excellent exposure for Barcelona, with some of the world’s most influential politicians and thinkers in this policy area taking part. According to Mayor Hereu, “This is another chance for Barcelona to prove its skills at organising leading world congresses.”

Barcelona saw record levels of growth both in delegates and the number of meetings held last year, showing just how consolidated the destination has become for the professional business sector. Thanks to new facilities like the Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB) and the Fira Gran Via enlargements, delegate numbers rose by 28% in 2007 compared to the year previous.

Spectacular growth was also seen in the incentive travel and conventions sector with a 48% increase in events and 30% in delegates. Overall, the number of meetings grew by 36% to stand at 1,775, while the delegate count mushroomed to 629,700, up by 28%. Overnights grew by 33.5% and the direct impact of the sector amounted to a whopping 1,712 million Euros, a huge rise of 65.6%.

Interestingly, large scale congresses with more than 1,000 delegates increased by 18%.
Medical and healthcare-related meetings were again the main sectors represented in events held in Barcelona and one in three of the 640-or-so international conventions came from Briton, with German, France and Italy following behind.

Barcelona Convention Bureau’s direct contribution in terms of generated congress activity amounted to 12% of the total number of meetings and 29.9% of all delegates. During 2007, BCB has confirmed 81 meetings, 132,000 delegates, 500,690 overnights all worth 328 million Euros.

Barcelona has seen a dramatic increase in the number of films and television adverts shot in its streets over the last few years. Now, City Hall and Turisme de Barcelona hope to use the concept as a way to help tourists discover new sights and locations that are perhaps off the normal visitor track.

Barcelona Movie.com is a website offering information about the four most well-known international films shot in Barcelona. The idea is that visitors can visit locations where films were shot.

The website includes snippets of information about the films, their stars and the locations.
The first four Barcelona Movie Walks are about Pedro Almodóvar and his multi-award-winning film Todo sobre mi madre; Perfume: The story of a murderer, one of the most successful European co-productions of recent years; Manuale d’amore 2, the second part of a hilarious Italian comedy about love which proved even more successful than the first; and L’Auberge Espagnole, one of the most successful French films of recent years, which was particularly popular among young audiences.

The tours are value to visitor stay and also help reduce visitor traffic at the main tourism sights in town, as many of the films are shot in locations off the traditional tourist route. IInformation about the films and the locations help tourists plan their stays and trips in Barcelona. The themed itineraries offer a whole host of information about the film in question: synopsis, cast and crew, the main awards won and a “Did you know?” section including anecdotes about the film. Each tour has a map featuring the locations/tourist attractions on the route like historic information, complementary information about the area, summary of the scenes filmed at each attraction, and snippets of information and anecdotes about the filming. And as new films are shot here, they will be added. One film set to feature as a walk will be Woody Allen’s film shot in Barcelona last year and due to premiere this September. So let the silver screen guide your trip through Barcelona.

The US has become one of the business routes at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, thanks to the recently-inaugurated daily nonstop American Airlines flight to JFK New York.

Barcelona now has three all-year-round, non-stop flights to cultural capital New York, the latest joining Delta’s JFK service and Continental’s Barcelona-Newark flight.

And with seven direct flights to North America daily, the US has become the busiest intercontinental route from Barcelona. Connections between the US and Canada now account for a whopping 29% of intercontinental activity at El Prat. American Airlines European VP Sales Executive Maria Sebastian says there is plenty of demand on the NY-BCN route even with three daily flights. American business travellers or cruise passengers -1.8 million in 2007, who had to travel through Madrid, now fly direct.

Part of the new traffic between Barcelona and the US is thanks to the Committee for Air Routes Development (CDRA), a working group made up by Spanish Airports operator AENA, Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce, Catalonia’s Regional Government and Barcelona City Hall. They develop market studies to help airliners open routes to Barcelona like those currently to New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, or like those to Canada (Montreal and Toronto) and Mexico DF.  With 750,000 passengers in total, the US is now the main intercontinental market for Barcelona. Now CDRA wants to consolidate direct flights already operating to North America and attract others, especially from South American. They have indentified potential markets like Brazil and Ecuador, or Argentina and Mexico -the latter already have direct Aerolíneas Argentinas and Aeroméxico flights. Barcelona is also connected with Bogota thanks to an Avianca flight.

* technical stop in Malaga

Some 380,000 passengers flew direct between Barcelona and the North American continent last year, a rise of 85,000. The American Airlines flight that started last April 25th operates a Boeing 767-300 with a capacity for 221 passengers -30 of these in business class. Flights leave Barcelona at 11.10 am and return at 19.00 from JFK.

Barcelona has direct flights with 25 other intercontinental cities, most of these American ones. Philadelphia, Buenos Aires, Atlanta, Mexico DF, Cancun, the Dominican Republic, and New York form part of the Americas continent list, with Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York are dailies.

The rest vary between once and three times a week. Air Transat, that operates the Montreal route, has announced that as from June 19th it will fly Toronto-Barcelona. Barcelona is also connected with the Jordanian capital of Amman with two flights a week by Royal Jordanian, and to Algeria, with Spanair and Air Algerie.

There are also daily flights to Casablanca, and Tangiers, Nador, and Marrakech, Damascus, Tel Aviv, and Tunis, - via Cartago and Monastir- Banyul (Gambia), Eygpt’s Luxor, Aswan and Cairo. In terms of Asia, we have a direct flight with Singapore, with a technical stop in Milan.

Opened last March in an emblematic building located in Rambla de Catalunya, this hotel is a Preferred Boutique member, part of the Majestic Hotel Group. Elegant in style, impeccable in service, the hotel is located at the heart of Modernist Barcelona. Its 53 Kelly-Hoppen-designed bedrooms combine sophistication and warmth. The hotel boasts its own gourmet eatery with Asian and Mediterranean specialties. The hotel also offers five apartments and has meetings facilities for 15 pax.

After years in the hotel business, Félix Martínez has taken over as the head of the CCIB, Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona, the Barcelona International Convention Centre, which opened in 2004.

The CCIB goes from strength to strength, recently holding the World Retail Congress and now a new edition of the European Society of Cardiology EuroPCR congress and the World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer, which has confirmed to 2011.

At the end of the year it will host the 2 main European Microsoft events and the World Conservation Congress organised by UICN. The CCIB is located next to Diagonal Mar and the Forum.