Clúster

The president of the Cluster participated in Madrid in one of the round tables of the sixth Annual Meeting of the entity promoted by the Professional Organization of Congresses of Spain.

Pardal highlighted the celebration in Galicia of three high-level meetings during the Spanish presidency of the EU and advocated taking advantage of this period to continue promoting this sector.

The Galicia Tourism Cluster has been one of the protagonists of the sixth Annual Meeting MICE Forum, held this Tuesday, March 28, in Madrid with the participation of an outstanding group of representatives of the tourism sector from all over Spain. The president of the Cluster, Cesáreo Pardal, was part of one of the round tables that took place throughout the morning and thus had the opportunity to explain the weight and potential that the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions tourism sector has in Galicia.

Cesáreo Pardal shared time and space for reflection with Belén Valentín-Gamazo, CEO of Best Way and president of Adeaza; and Eva Garde, director of the Granada Convention Bureau, in a round table moderated by José Miguel Gimeno, vice president of Travel Advisors Guild and CEO of MTGlobal. Pardal explained in his speech that MICE “is one of the tourism segments that most contributes to alleviating the seasonality of tourism activity in destinations, generates value and growth, and maintains quality and stability in employment”. Thus, he pointed out that the average expenditure of meeting tourists is three times that of leisure tourists.

In the specific case of Galicia, he explained that public-private collaboration, the work of OPC Galicia and the creation of Galicia MICE are some of the factors that have contributed to the fact that the community has become in the last 10 years a “reference destination for congress tourism”, as evidenced by the fact that in 2019 12% of the visitors that Galicia received did so for this type of events.

The short distances for travel, the proximity of the venues to natural areas and the commitment to sustainable proposals, the customization of the offer and the added value of elements such as Galician gastronomy and the Way of St. James were pointed out by the president of the Cluster among the strengths of MICE tourism in Galicia and as elements that also explain that the community “is going to host three high-level meetings of the Spanish presidency of the European Union”.

Cesáreo Pardal concluded his speech by stressing that both Galicia and Spain as a whole still have a great capacity for growth in this area and making a request: “We believe that the Spanish presidency should serve as a showcase and loudspeaker for the Spanish tourism sector and in a prominent way for congress and meeting tourism, so we request the creation of spaces and/or meetings during the presidency in order to show the potential of Spain and each of the regions”.