Calpe has plans for a nice MICE project

CALPE, like Alicante City and Elche, plans to attract conference tourism.

The town hall recently gave the go-ahead to a Calpe-based hotel chain which intends to build a conference centre with a function room capable of holding 1,500 people, combined with a 606-room hotel.

The target is to bring 125,000 conference participants to Calpe each year while creating 1,500 direct and indirect jobs, according to reports in the local Spanish media.

Calpe’s good communications with the airports of both Alicante and Valencia puts the municipality in a prime position for the type of tourism, known as MICE, an acronym for Meetings, Incentives (trips to motivate or reward employees or associates), Conferences and Exhibitions. 

Calpe is ideal for this type of tourism during the low season when the municipality is peaceful but still animated and usually enjoys good weather.

Spain’s MICE sector was growing steadily by between 2 or 3 per cent each year, an advance that was temporarily halted by the pandemic, according to the Iberian Business Travel Association (IBTA).

It currently generates an annual €20 billion in Spain, around 70 per cent of which comes from travel arrangements for business trips although 30 per cent corresponds to conferences, corporate events and incentives.