The sunshine of Barcelona shone brightly on EIBTM 2011 which closed today having delivered three days of powerful business opportunities and connections as the annual international event for the meetings industry broke all its own records.

Pre-show expectations were more than met with 64,950 Hosted Buyer pre-scheduled appointments leading the way to substantial business being conducted on the exhibition floor.

“Globally, this industry is responsible for 1.7 million jobs and $106 billion of GDP. Our role is to provide the platform and environment for the sector to meet and conduct business. Ultimately we believe we have achieved that and more and delivered value and profitable results for our customers” commented Graeme Barnett, EIBTM Event Director.

As the show closes today, early indications of just how successful this year’s event has been are recorded in the pre-audited figures.  All trade show attendee numbers for Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) are subject to an independent ABC Audit to provide total transparency to all stakeholders.

Over 15,300 meetings industry professionals attended EIBTM over the three days including a total visitor and buyer attendance of 9,262 (last year’s audited numbers were 8,395), 10.3% up on 2010, of which 3,904 were Hosted Buyers (last year’s audited numbers were 3,963 ) delivering a 9% increase on Hosted Buyer attendance from 2010.

With more than 100 Professional education sessions – over 3,000 delegates attended seminars including those held in the Future Events Experience.

Eric Bakermans, Meetings & Conventions Marketing Manager, Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions summed up many exhibitor’s experiences of the business taking place on the show floor.  “We have been sold out solid, which means that EIBTM offers excellent business opportunities for the Dutch Business Events industry.”

“We have always managed to close a lot of business at EIBTM, but this year it has been especially encouraging.  To start with, it is very well organized and on top of that we have more than 80% of the appointments and had more contacts than last year.  We have also closed group bookings of approximately 2000 persons in various groups for 2012” added Esteban Miso, Solways Group, Congress & Incentives Department.

Sara Elleni, General Manager Chile en Colores DMC spoke of the high level of quality contacts with decision and purchasing power that they met with during the show, “We always have high expectations of EIBTM and this year all our appointments have been with high quality contacts.  We even had 9 people with appointments that we didn’t expect and 3 have given us strong potential business”.

Returning exhibitor Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces spoke of how after 5 years of absence their participation this year at EIBTM met their business objectives.  “The most important thing this year was to show our brand and educate clients, we are very satisfied by the appointments we have had, the high quality of Hosted Buyers and the incentive groups that we have closed with Italy and Belgium” said Kenny Teo, Director of Sales.

“Barcelona certainly delivered the show we were really hoping for this year and we couldn’t have had better weather to lift the spirits for this industry.  Despite the global economic turmoil, the quality and professionalism of those determined to do business and drive the industry forward is testament to why this year’s event has been such a success” said Barnett.

Barcelona.city.mobi
To find out all the latest news and information whilst in Barcelona. City.Mobi has launched its new guide to the city.

Barcelona.city.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.