Businesses hoping for a gain in Spain

They will be among 115 people from the Leeds area travelling to meet chief executives and politicians in the Catalan capital as well as showcasing the West Yorkshire city.

The event, which runs from Tuesday to Thursday, has been organised by Marketing Leeds and builds on Leeds in Milan, a similar trade mission which took place in October 2008.

Screen Yorkshire, Financial Leeds and the city council are among those sending staff, as well as representatives from the hotel, legal and property sectors and global engineering consultancy Arup.

Deborah Green, chief executive of Marketing Leeds, which is three-quarters funded from the public purse, said the harsh economic climate should not stop the city from trying to win investment from the countries with which it has links.

"Times are tough but we are still forging those relationships. As things get better, we will be well-placed to race off (to recovery]. We don't believe that difficult times economically are the times to stop doing this. On the contrary, we have to try."

Ms Green also said firms had been under more pressure to justify the time and expense of sending staff abroad when it might have been simply "nodded through" previously.

"There is no whiff of a 'jolly' about it. It is a hard-working business event to allow different sectors to pursue their agendas. Money is the hardest thing for people to give – all over the world. We feel a strong responsibility to make it count."

Ms Green said 200,000 would be the maximum spend for the Barcelona trip but it may end up being considerably less. Businesses which travelled to Milan, and who go to Barcelona, pay for themselves.

The programme, dubbed a "festival of commerce and culture", will include meetings with Barcelona Hotels Association and Barcelona Bar Association, a civic reception, another International Business Network, after one was put on in Milan, and a financial services seminar.

Martyn Warr, UKTI director for Iberia, will talk to the Leeds delegation about how to bid for contracts and build long-term business links.

The centrepiece of the festival is Live from Leeds, a specially created performance featuring Northern Ballet Theatre, Opera North and Phoenix Dance.

Alan Baker, chairman of Leeds Legal, which will host a seminar for an audience of lawyers and business intermediaries in Catalonia, on how to market a law firm, said: "We've made excellent progress in communicating the benefits of Leeds as a legal centre to Spanish firms on our previous visits, and we hope to build on this during this week."

Ms Green said arrangements are being made for a Barcelona delegation to visit Leeds in June.

Vital links in commerce

Leeds in Barcelona comes after a similar trade delegation visited Milan in 2008.

Delegates established what they hope will be long-term links as they try to win contracts from World Expo 2015, which takes place in the Italian city.

Deborah Green, chief executive of Marketing Leeds, said they had chosen to go to Italy rather than Germany because the Britain's consul-general had been in post there for a longer period so had been able to spend more time building contacts in the business community.

The Milan trip involved more than 150 Yorkshire business people and regional representatives who spent time with Edward Chaplin, Britain's ambassador to Italy, and Laurence Bristow-Smith, consul general in Milan and director for trade and industry, as well as meeting Milanese firms from several sectors.