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Campo de
las Naciones, exhibition center.
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Last year, 65 percent of Madrid's five million
visitors were there primarily on business. A majority
attended congresses, conventions or trade fairs.
Over the past decade, the Spanish capital has built
a solid international reputation as a center for
trade fair and convention tourism. According to
the International Congress and Conference Association
Madrid is now in second place as a trade show and
conference city.
Most of the action is concentrated a few convenient
miles from Barajas International Airport on the
southwest edge of the city. The Casa de Campo, run
by the city's Empresa Municipal Campo de las Naciones,
is adjacent to the new IFEMA Convention Center in
the Juan Carlos I trade fair park forming a giant
state-of-the-art facility for major trade shows
and conferences. There is also the Palacio Municipal
del Congresos de Madrid
The Naciones complex of 42,000 square meters boasts
a seating capacity for 7,000 people, and includes
a large hotel. Its Crystal Pavillion is the center
piece of the exhibition space. Last year, around
100 events were staged at the Naciones complex,
including 31 trade fairs, some of them international
such as the Club del Gourmet, bioculture, the International
Engraving Salon and Contemporary Art Editions, as
well as the Tennis Masters Madrid that drew 117,000
spectators to cheer the young Spanish tennis star
Juan Carlos Ferrero to victory.
Another successful trade show was Artecuadro, the
second most important show for the picture frame
trade after Bologna, Italy. Artecuadro attracted
about 100 exhibitors and occupied 12,000 square
meters of exhibition space. Meanwhile, ExpoReclam
-- the advertising gift fair -- was held in the
Crystal Pavillion, and subsequently in the annual
"expo" of Spanish and international costume
jewelry 90 firms showed off the latest trends in
costume jewelry and accessories.
The Club de Gourmets show was in April 2003, and
was considered one of the most important food fairs
in Europe for the high quality of the gourmet foods
presented. 967 firms took part, and a record breaking
46,000 professionals visited the stands -- an increase
over 2002 of 9.4 percent. At the same time, the
Campo de las Naciones organized a parallel gourmet
food fair for the general public, with a separate
section for children.
The second half of 2003 saw Expotural, the National
Rural Tourism Fair, in which over 50 companies had
stands over an area of 40,000 square meters. The
fair racked up 77,000 visitors. Other important
trade shows included a bioculture show, which also
attracted 500 exhibitors, and the annual furniture,
decor and print fair.
The range of events is breathtakingly wide. One
week it was the IV International Fair of Pest Control
Technologies, combining experts and manufacturers
of insecticides, fumigators, disinfectants, and
manufacturers of aerosol sprays, the other week
it was a conference by the European Union Foreign
Affairs Spouses Association (EUFASA), and then the
United Europe Gastroenterology Week.
The proximity of the different convention sites
-- the Casa de Campo and the IFEMA site -- means
these modern installations can be combined to hold
macro-conferences. These mega events can take advantage
of this huge available space and ancillary services,
while at the same time smaller conferences or trade
shows can also be held. Major events fit comfortably
into the available structure, and can be even housed
on the site.
There's little point in chasing the conference/convention
market if the participants can't find anywhere to
sleep. Madrid does not have that problem. The city
has 1,104 hotels, service apartments, lodgings,
and hostels within the city limits for total of
38,559 available rooms. The mainstream hotels total
178, many of them four- or five-star, with 26,000
rooms.
Within the past year 20 new hotels have opened in
the Spanish capital with 2,478 rooms. A further
60 are scheduled to open by 2006, adding 8,376 rooms
to the existing total.
A similar expansion is planned in the Madrid region,
where the current number of hotels of various categories
totals 1,342, with 46,661 available rooms. 14 new
hotels opened in the region last year, and a further
28 are expected to be added within the next two
years, so the region will have 69,171 rooms by 2006.
Among the new hotels, the Madrid Auditorium is
considered the largest hotel with conference facilities
in Europe. The hotel's Principle Felipe Congress
Center can accommodate 8,000 people, and has an
auditorium with a capacity of 2,000 plus 27 additional
conference rooms.
On the political side, 5,000 delegates from 160
countries took part in the World Assembly on the
Ageing at Madrid's Palacio Municipal de Congressos.
A month later a NATO summit was held at the Palacio,
and then a European Union summit. In 2003, this
building has hosted about 200 events attended by
more than 1.5 million visitors, which makes it one
of the main sources of revenue for the city of Madrid.
The high level of activity at the Palacio de Congressos,
the Casa de Campo, and IFEMA trade fair site are
reasons why convention tourism has become one of
the pillars of Madrid's economic prosperity. Organizations
in the business, science, technology and culture
sectors have held recent conferences using the city's
modern convention and conference facilities. A month
ago 1,500 delegates attended Eurailspeed, the Fourth
World Congress on High Speed Travel. Economists,
financiers, and transport and railroad industry
experts attended conferences, and part in round
tables and debates on different aspects of the future
of high speed train travel.
An International Gastronomic Summit brought together
over 1,000 master chefs from around the world, including
Spain's top chef and high priest of modern Spanish
cuisine Ferran Adria. The audience was able to see
the chefs at work on large screens.
Madrid is also a great lure for medical conventions.
At the end of 2002 the Palacio hosted four major
medical congresses over two months -- pediatrics
(2,000 participants), cardiology (3,000 participants),
family medicine (7,000 participants), and internal
medicine (2,000 participants). The family medicine
convention included 4,400 square meters of trade
show area, and an elaborate program of lectures
and demonstrations.
When not used by doctors or chefs, the convention
area is given over for concerts. Last year, the
English singer Elvis Costello performed in the 2,000-capacity
main auditorium to full houses. The auditorium is
also regularly used for major prize giving ceremonies,
such as the annual Goya awards , the Spanish movie
industry's answer to the Oscar.
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