Scottish tourism chiefs will highlight the appeal of the country’s hotels and business event venues at a huge trade show in Barcelona next week.
The Exhibition for Incentive Business Travel and Meetings (EIBTM) is said to be the biggest global event of its kind.
It will bring together more than 15,000 industry professionals in the Catalan capital from November 18-20.
Tourism body VisitScotland is leading a delegation of 11 Scottish partners, including Visit Aberdeen and Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre to Barcelona.
Requests for appointments with members of VisitScotland’s team are already up by 60% on the 2013 EIBTM.
The Scotland stand will also host a Homecoming party, where trade buyers will be treated to a whisky-tasting “tour”.
VisitScotland aims to use EIBTM to build on this year’s bumper year for Scottish tourism by attracting as many as possible conferences, conventions, incentive programmes and other business events to the country in 2015 and beyond.
Venues across the north and north-east will be promoted alongside other Scottish locations in the chase for new business in a market that in 2013 was worth an estimated £1.9billion to Scotland’s economy.
The business market currently represents 20% of all tourism expenditure in Scotland.
Business visitors’ spending is almost twice that of leisure visitors, making it a highly lucrative sector, and it is also less seasonal than leisure tourism.
In addition, attracting a major conference reinforces Scotland’s credentials in key industries and can make the country a more attractive destination for inward investors.
VisitScotland meeting and incentives marketing manager Amanda Ferguson said: “EIBTM presents us with a fantastic opportunity to showcase Scottish venues and hotels to event organisers from all over the world.
“Scotland’s profile has arguably never been higher but, in many respects, the impact of 2014 is only just starting. It is very much a launch pad for 2015 and beyond.
“We have already seen more than £2billion of investment in Scotland over the last two years from airlines such as United, Qatar, US Airways and Lufthansa, and hotel groups such as Hilton, Motel One, Marriott and De Vere.
“This is set to continue over the coming years, with the new conference centre in Aberdeen aiming to open in 2017 and a multimillion-pound regeneration of the Dundee Waterfront.
“This clearly demonstrates strong belief in the future growth potential of Scotland.”