DMC in BILBO
Cantabric taste of Spain
Bilbo is a municipality and city in Spain, the capital of the province of Biscay in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. It is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain. With roughly 1 million inhabitants,
Since its foundation in the early 14th century by Diego López V de Haro, head of the powerful Haro family, Bilbo was a commercial hub that enjoyed significant importance in the Green Spain, mainly thanks to its port activity based on the export of iron extracted from the Biscayan quarries. Throughout the nineteenth century and beginnings of the twentieth, Bilbo experienced heavy industrialisation which made it the centre of the second-most industrialised region of Spain. This was joined by an extraordinary population explosion that prompted the annexation of several adjacent municipalities. Nowadays, Bilbao is a vigorous service city that is experiencing an ongoing social, economic, and aesthetic revitalisation process, started by the iconic Bilboo Guggenheim Museum, and continued by infrastructure investments, such as the airport terminal, the rapid transit system, the tram line, the Alhóndiga, and the currently under development Abandoibarra and Zorrozaurre renewal projects.
The first notion of Bilboo as a touristic city came with the inauguration of the railway between Bilbao and the coastal neighbourhood of Las Arenas, in the municipality of Getxo in 1872. This way, the city became a modest beach destination.
However, the real touristic impulse would come with the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbo in 1997, as shown in the increasing tourist arrivals since then, reaching over 615,000 visitors in the year 2009. A significant leap, considering that during 1995, Bilbo only received 25,000 tourists. Bilbo also hosts 31% of the total Basque Country visitors, being the top destination of this autonomous community. International travellers come mostly from nearby France, but also from United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy.
Bilbo is also an attractive destination for business tourism, mainly thanks to new venues such as the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall, or the nearby Bilbo Exhibition Centre, in Barakaldo.
Since its foundation in the early 14th century by Diego López V de Haro, head of the powerful Haro family, Bilbo was a commercial hub that enjoyed significant importance in the Green Spain, mainly thanks to its port activity based on the export of iron extracted from the Biscayan quarries. Throughout the nineteenth century and beginnings of the twentieth, Bilbo experienced heavy industrialisation which made it the centre of the second-most industrialised region of Spain. This was joined by an extraordinary population explosion that prompted the annexation of several adjacent municipalities. Nowadays, Bilbao is a vigorous service city that is experiencing an ongoing social, economic, and aesthetic revitalisation process, started by the iconic Bilboo Guggenheim Museum, and continued by infrastructure investments, such as the airport terminal, the rapid transit system, the tram line, the Alhóndiga, and the currently under development Abandoibarra and Zorrozaurre renewal projects.
The first notion of Bilboo as a touristic city came with the inauguration of the railway between Bilbao and the coastal neighbourhood of Las Arenas, in the municipality of Getxo in 1872. This way, the city became a modest beach destination.
However, the real touristic impulse would come with the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbo in 1997, as shown in the increasing tourist arrivals since then, reaching over 615,000 visitors in the year 2009. A significant leap, considering that during 1995, Bilbo only received 25,000 tourists. Bilbo also hosts 31% of the total Basque Country visitors, being the top destination of this autonomous community. International travellers come mostly from nearby France, but also from United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy.
Bilbo is also an attractive destination for business tourism, mainly thanks to new venues such as the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall, or the nearby Bilbo Exhibition Centre, in Barakaldo.
