Sitges es una localidad próxima a Barcelona. Destaca, además de por su ambiente festivo, por su gran dinamismo empresarial. En este artículo, escrito la mitad en inglés y la mitad en castellano, hablamos sobre cómo el turismo puede hacer que una pequeña localidad de pescadores se convierta en un gran centro de negocios.
En la parte en castellano hablaremos de como el marketing online en Sitges ha crecido de manera exponencial. Existe una empresa de posicionamiento web en Sitges muy prestigiosa y apreciada por los clientes.
Empresa posicionamiento web Sitges
Sitges, por su cercanía a Barcelona, es una ciudad que ha visto crecer de manera muy rápida su número de empresas. En lo referente al posicionamiento web, Sitges cuenta con alguna que otra empresa muy reconocida por las empresas de la provincia de Barcelona.
Sitges se puede considerar como una especie de Silicon Valey catalán. Cuenta con un clima privilegiado, la cercanía a una gran ciudad y al fin y al cabo no deja de ser un pueblo venido a más. Por ello muchas empresas relacionadas con el marketing online han fijado su residencia en ella.
El SEO o posicionamiento web es un trabajo tedioso. Los resultados en Google tardan semanas o incluso meses en ser vistos. Esto hace que el trabajo sea todo menos excitante. Por ello, si ese trabajo de posicionamiento web se realiza desde una empresa ubicada en un sitio como Sitges, la tarea resulta mucho más amena.
Sitges: Boosting Business Tourism
Sitges, located in the Garraf region, is a reference within Catalonian tourism for several reasons: its privileged location on the Mediterranean coast, a benign climate year-round, a rich historical and cultural heritage, a gastronomic tradition, and a wide range of recreation and leisure activities. In addition to all of this, as its mayor Jordi Baijet explains, is also a reference due to “the great human quality of the Sitges people, their welcoming and happy nature and their high level of their tolerance.”
Its excellent location, only 20 minutes from El Prat’s international airport and its proximity to Barcelona (some 36km), is unrivalled. “We do not compete with Barcelona, instead we form a common project. Sitges is an exclusive place with a long trajectory in the tourism sector; you could even say that it is already a brand which many people are conscious of. In my opinion, Sitges and Barcelona are complementary and the market which Barcelona attracts is liable to come to Sitges and vice-versa.” Baijet says.
With a hotel capacity of more than 7,000 rooms – mostly in the four and five star categories – Sitges was the first Catalonian place to support conference and business tourism. “Ours was the first Catalonian town to focus on this type of tourism, building the Auditorio Melià in 92, the first of its type in the country” Baijet says.
Nowadays the municipality reaps the fruits of that change that happened with revolutionizing the concept of tourism in the 90s. Moreover, the private sector has contributed to its development with initiatives like the Sitges Convention Bureau, Best Sitges and other important elements of publicity and pulling power that they have in the promotion of this town as a destination for hosting conferences, conventions and incentive trips. The figures speak for themselves: in the last year the town has hosted more than 864 meetings with 56,000 delegates.
“An image is worth more than 1,000 words”
The direct promotional actions are those that the Sitges Tourism Promotional Agency puts into action. Montse Arnau, the Director, explains that the agency’s philosophy is based on the saying “an image is worth more than a thousand words. We attend strategically selected workshops and fairs and we encourage people to come and enjoy our attractions in situ. We are betting on the renowned Fam Trip or inspection visits.”
The hard work is really paying off. Besides the success of the aforementioned get togethers, Sitges held the 14th International Conference on Urban Planning and Regional Development in the Information Society GeoMultimedia 2009, between the 22 and 25 April this year, “a very important conference in the international calendar which, until now, has been held in Vienna and which will presumably be hold in Sitges for the next four times,” Arnau says.
Just as the Director of the Tourism Promotional Agency points out, the conference does not stand out for the number of attendees, estimated to be around 400 people, but in the professional quality of them because the people who make up this meeting “are prestigious architects and city planners who design and develop the cities of the future from a sustainable point of view.” This is an area in which Arnau explains, the local authorities are very involved. “Sitges wants to become a reference as one of the global headquarters of city planning, of how they should be designed in the future.”
The mayor also alludes to this idea. Baijet also emphasizes the effort the town authorities make so that Sitges is “an attractive place for people who want a creative, beautiful, tolerant and open space where unwanted noise and environmental factors are being kept to a minimum more and more. This is a place to be able to think, create and develop humanistic activities which have nothing to do with science, biotechnology or technology.
We want to be somewhere where people can really develop their most creative side.” For this reason, Sitges is working on the creation of a cluster dedicated to art, creativity and thought. “The project has a series of programmes which are being put into action, not only to develop practice but also from the theoretical point of view,” the mayor says. “To this end we are bringing a series of universities, institutes and foundations on board so that they can develop their activities.” These activities are mainly based on innovation, creativity and strategies for planning, creating and developing the cities of tomorrow.
Online marketing with Sitges, a trade mark
There are currently 30,000 people resident and registered as such in Sitges “of whom 27% are foreign from approximately some 100 nationalities,” says Baijet. “The largest contingent is the British and, therefore, the level of English is very high in Sitges and gives us added value such as multiculturalism and internationalism, valuable components in developing economically.”
Presently, both the Town Hall and the Sitges Tourism Promotional Agency work shoulder to shoulder to continue to make this incredible place a fashionable one which offers difference and a striking year-round calendar of cultural activities and leisure. Arnau affirms that “we continue working to promote Sitges as a unique place and, whereby coming here will be an unrivalled experience and something essential thereby achieving a higher turnover of companies, conventions and conferences which help us to continue to grow touristically.”
Luckily a large part of the terrain has already been covered and today Sitges is considered as a very important destination in the international touristic arena. “When I travel for work to other continents or countries it surprises me to see how people know of us and they say wonderful things about the town, and that is because we are a trade mark which is prestigious and well-established with a visible spot in the world of tourism,” Arnau concludes. However, it is always better to try for yourself, he insists. When you have the chance, get away and visit Sitges. An image is always worth more than a thousand words…