Travel, music and leisure fill BEC's agenda, drawing close to 98,000 people

Bilbao Exhibition Centre closed a weekend with all its halls running at full capacity: between 7 and 10 May it simultaneously hosted Expovacaciones, Caravaning Euskadi, the Used Vehicle Fair (FVO), the first concerts of La Oreja de Van Gogh's tour at Bizkaia Arena and the HABE and Euskotren examinations, bringing together close to 98,000 people. Expovacaciones, whose 46th edition was built around the Experimenta and Saborea themes, gathered 30,096 visitors from the Basque provinces, Cantabria, Burgos, Navarre and La Rioja, offering tastings, active tourism and a Basquetour professional session on smart tourism governance; the opening was presided over by provincial deputy Sonia Pérez Ezquerra, who highlighted Bizkaia's commitment to sustainable, accessible tourism. Caravaning Euskadi attracted 4,600 fans of touring holidays, while the FVO closed with 24,272 visitors and a 21% increase in sales completed during the event, a figure expected to keep growing as pending deals close. The two La Oreja de Van Gogh concerts, marking the band's reunion with Amaia Montero, sold out and drew around 30,000 attendees, while the HABE exams gathered 7,773 candidates and the Euskotren tests another 880.