Barcelona - Meetpie.com

BARCELONA
The capital of Catalonia
is adding to its offer to
the UK market. Sam
Harrington-Lowe reports
On the tiles: Gaudi's masterpieces define the Barcelona skyline
Aiming high
O
ne of the best-known
destinations in Europe
for
UK
planners,
Barcelona is a city with
an ever-changing land
and sky-scape. It’s easily accessible,
with excellent air links, particularly
with the majority of Spanish and
European cities, and the international
airport, located 15 minutes from the
city centre, is currently undergoing
expansion. From 2008, a high-speed
train will connect Barcelona with
Madrid and Seville. Links with France
and the European rail network are
planned for the future.
The
city's
modern
hotel
infrastructure offers a range of
options for congresses and large or
small scale events and meetings.
Add to this the compact nature of
the city, the ease with which one can
travel about, ambient climate and the
excellent nightlife and gastronomy
and you can see why the city plays
host to so many multi-national
events.
The city has a plethora of
opportunities when it comes to events
but two new venues are working
towards providing opportunity for
large, high end groups.
There will be few in the industry
who are not familiar with Fira de
Barcelona, even if it’s a once a
year for EIBTM. The Fira plays a
strategic role in both Catalan and
Spanish economies as a platform for
economic promotion.
With its two venues, Montjuïc
and Gran Via, Fira de Barcelona
boasts the largest trade fair area
in Spain (365,000 square metres
of gross exhibition space) and one
WHO
to contact
Airy Garrigosa
Barcelona
Convention Bureau
Tel: +34 93 368 97 00
E-mail: bcb@
barcelonaturisme.com
of the biggest in Europe. A planned
extension will increase exhibition
capacity by another 40,000 square
metres.
The enlargement of the Gran Via
has led to a significant increase in
the amount of exhibition space at Fira
de Barcelona. There are currently
365,000 square metres: 200,000
square metres in the six pavilions
at the Gran Via and 115,000 square
metres in the eight halls at Montjuïc.
W Barcelona, opening in September
2009, will be the first W hotel in
Spain. The 473 guestrooms set over
29 storeys will enjoy 360 degree
views of the city.
Ten fully equipped studios and
meeting rooms will host up to 1,000
guests, totalling 2,300 square metres
of meeting room facilities and an
enormous ballroom.
Continued on page 151
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casestudy
Continued from page 149
Country
cousin
Sarah
Normanton
Logistik
Names and faces
W
If you want to get people excited
about attending ‘yet another
conference,’ a sunny destination with
a beach usually helps. Throw in a
cosmopolitan city, a celebrated art
scene, a marina with a sprinkling
of glamorous yachts and one of
the coolest hotels in Europe as the
backdrop and you’re onto a winner.
The result was a successful weekend
conference, designed to engage
international business professionals
who only meet once every two years.
The weekend enabled delegates to
network and put names to faces;
hile many of us
might
be
familiar
with Barcelona as a
destination, the less
well-trodden paths of
Sitges offer a perfectly respectable
location for meetings and events.
Think of Sitges as a charming
country cousin of Barcelona and you
have rather hit the nail on the head.
With a tradition of largely leisure
tourism, Sitges seems, on the face
of it, to be less well-prepared for
meetings business, but the Olympics
in Barcelona in 1992 changed
the city, driving development and
expansion. More hotels and venues
mean that the city is open to groups
share best practice and contacts
through specialist workshops; build
relationships with international
colleagues and gain an understanding
of the current situation and future
prospects.
Hotel Arts in Barcelona is such a
great venue in an extraordinary city.
Situated in the Port Olimpic area of
the city redeveloped as part of the
multimillion pound regeneration
project for the 1992 Olympic Games,
Hotel Arts is a five-star luxury hotel
with sea views to one side and
cityscape to the other.
Continued on page 152
Verema Restaurant at Dolce Sitges
of all sizes, and with access being so
easy – less than an hour by road or
rail from Barcelona – Sitges offers a
variety of venues and programmes to
suit all budgets.
For large groups Dolce Sitges is
hard to beat. Situated on a hilltop
overlooking
the
Mediterranean
Sea this is the area’s only five-star
Catalan style hotel, resort and
conference destination. With 263
guest rooms and conference facilities
comprising 11 meeting rooms, 25
breakout rooms, an amphitheatre and
a spacious ballroom you’d be hard
pressed to find a more convenient
or luxurious space in which to hold
a large conference or event.
Also worth a mention for big
groups is the Sol Melia – a hotel and
conference centre located in the city
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Continued from page 151
itself. With 307 rooms plus great
leisure facilities, it’s a good option for
large groups, but it’s the conference
and exhibition space that gives it the
edge, including the 16 room, 2,000
square metre conference centre
and a purpose-built auditorium that
holds up to 1,380 people.
For medium sized groups, Centre
de Disseny de Sitges is worth a look.
Formerly
Seat-Audi-Volkswagen
group’s European design centre, it’s
a unique venue catering for events
that require a modern space, with a
simple yet dynamic design. It works
well for presentations, exhibitions,
corporate meetings and conventions;
a very modern infrastructure offering
something different, with bright,
well-lit spaces.
Within Sitges itself, there are a
number of unique four star hotels
to support any sized group, such
as Hotel Calipolis or Hotel La Nina.
The hotels have a policy of sharing
space with each other so booking
groups larger than any of the venues
is simple.
5101_ad_SI_Cat_Magazine.qxd
Cocktail reception at Centre de Disseny de Sitges
11-08-2008
09:38
Special mention must go to Hotel
Estela, an ‘art’ hotel on the seafront
with an extraordinary resident artist,
creating bespoke designs for each
room, as well as other local artists’
contributions.
Nestling alongside the bars and
clubs along the seafront are venues
offering an excellent post-event
programme for sampling a taste of
Sitges. The Maricel museum has one
of the most
Pagina
1 stunning small, open air
event spaces I’ve ever seen on the
roof, and the excellent Picnic on the
Seafront offers exquisite tapas for
small to medium groups in a very
traditional style.
For those with CSR boxes to tick
Garraf’s Buddhist monastery, Sakya
Tashi Ling, organizes diverse cultural
activities such as yoga, meditation
and other workshops such as tree
planting for small groups up to 30.
experience
the dolce difference
From our unique, innovative conference facilities to our creative
and flexible package options, our goal is simple – to provide you
with the world’s best meeting experience.
� 25 minutes from International Airport and 35 minutes from
downtown Barcelona
� 263 rooms with terraces and views of the Mediterranean Sea and
four outdoor swimming pools
� 1 amphitheatre, 1 ballroom, 11 meeting rooms and 25 break out
rooms
� Dolce Vital Spa: indoor swimming pool, 8 cabins for treatments,
ice fountain, steam bath, jacuzzi, sauna
� Fitness centre with personal trainers
� 3 restaurants, 3 bars and private dining room
sitges.dolce.com
152
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BARCELONA.indd 4
Av. Camí de Miralpeix, 12 • 08870 Sitges • Spain
(t) 938 109 000 (f) 938 109 055 (e) [email protected]
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