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ICCA ranks top 2013 countries and cities

May 13, 2014

The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), the leading global meetings industry association, is reporting another year of solid strength in the international association meetings market. Published each year, ICCA released the 2013 Top 20 Rankings for countries and cities, indicating that the international association meeting sector continues strong growth.

“It shouldn’t be surprising that our 2013 figures have demonstrated the strength of the international association meetings sector, since the overall picture for our industry is significantly better than has been the case for quite some time,” said Martin Sirk, CEO, ICCA. “But it should be remembered that this is a sector that has shown significant growth in every single year since the financial crisis hit the world economy in 2008.”

Organization members and in-house research team identified 11,685 regularly occurring association events which rotate between at least three countries as having taken place during 2013 with over 535 more identified than the previous year.

To be included in the rankings for 2013, meetings must have been held on a regular basis, have had at least 50 delegates and rotated between at least three countries.

Rank	Country	#Meetings	Rank	City	#Meetings
1	U.S.A.	829	1	Paris	204
2	Germany	722	2	Madrid	186
3	Spain	562	3	Vienna	182
4	France	527	4	Barcelona	179
5	United Kingdom	525	5	Berlin	178
6	Italy	447	6	Singapore	175
7	Japan	342	7	London	166
8	China-P.R.	340	8	Istanbul	146
9	Brazil	315	9	Lisbon	125
10	Netherlands	302		Seoul	125
11	Canada	290	11	Prague	121
12	Republic of Korea	260	12	Amsterdam	120
13	Portugal	249	13	Dublin	114
14	Austria	244	14	Buenos Aires	113
15	Sweden	238	15	Brussels	111
16	Australia	231	16	Copenhagen	109
17	Argentina	223	17	Budapest	106
18	Turkey	221	18	Beijing	105
19	Belgium	214	19	Rome	99
20	Switzerland	205	20	Bangkok	93
				Stockholm	93
				Sydney, NSW	93

Made up of the same countries as last year are the top 10 country rankings although some countries switched places. Remaining respectively as first, second and third are the U.S., Germany and Spain. Decreasing is the gap between the U.S. and Germany from a difference of 184 meetings in 2012 to 107 in 2013. France and the UK have switched places with France now fourth and the UK ranking fifth. Italy remains sixth while Japan climbs to up to seven and China-P.R. climbs to eight at the cost of Brazil, dropping two places to ninth, and The Netherlands, down to number 10.

Paris gained Vienna’s previously held first place spot since 2005 as the No. 1 city in the ICCA rankings. Vienna has moved to third place with Madrid in second. Barcelona climbed to fourth and Berlin moved to fifth. Singapore remains sixth and London fell from a shared sixth place to seventh. Istanbul climbed to eighth and Lisbon and Seoul, both newcomers in the top 10, shared ninth place.

“The international association meetings sector is a solid, reliable performer, in good times and bad, and the longer term trends are the most critically important factors when preparing strategic plans and investment decisions. I am convinced that every serious meetings destination, internationally ambitious venue, and forward-thinking meetings management company should include international associations in their marketing and development strategies,” added Sirk.

A special 50-year edition of its international association meetings Statistics Report, “A modern history of international association meetings 1963-2012,” has been published in September 2013 as part of ICCA’s 50-year anniversary. This report makes clear that for the last half century with no sign of slowing down, the number of regularly-occurring, internationally-rotating association meetings is increasing by 100 percent every 10 years.

For more information, visit www.icca50.com.