With the release of the 2012 Top 20 Rankings for cities and countries, ICCA is reporting another year of continued strength in the international association meetings market.
For the first time ever, more than 11,150 regularly occurring association events which rotate between at least three countries were identified by ICCA members and ICCA’s in-house research team as having taken place during 2012, over 1,000 more than identified a year previously.
Table 1: ICCA country and city ranking measured by number of meetings organised in 2012
Number of Meetings per CountryNumber of Meetings per CityRankingCountryNumber of MeetingsRankingCityNumber of Meetings1USA8331Vienna1952Germany6492Paris1813Spain5503Berlin1724United Kingdom4774Madrid1645France4695Barcelona1546Italy3906London1507Brazil360Singapore1508Japan3418Cogenhagen1379Netherlands3159Istanbul12810China31110 Amsterdam12211Austria27811Prague11212Canada27312Stockholm11013Australia25313Beijing10914Switzerland24114Brussels10715Sweden23315Lisbon10616Republic of Korea22916Bangkok10517Portugal21317Helsinki10018Argentina202Seoul10019Belgium19419Buenas Aires9920Denmark18520Budapest98Rome98
The top 10 countries showed little change in ranking, with the top seven repeating their positions, led by the USA, Germany and Spain, followed by United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Brazil. After the wave of cancellations following the earthquake and tsunami, Japan jumped back into the top 10 from 13th to 8th place. The Netherlands remained 9th and China-P.R. dropped from 8th to 10th place and Austria from 10th to 11th place.
In the city rankings, Vienna retained its number one status with 195 meetings in 2012, and Paris was second again. Berlin climbed one place to third. Spanish cities Madrid and Barcelona were respectively 4th and 5th and London and Singapore shared 6th place. The biggest climber in the top ten was Copenhagen, taking 8th spot with 137 meetings, 39 more than in 2011. Istanbul and Amsterdam took 9th and 10th spot, displacing Beijing, which fell three places to 13th.
ICCA CEO Martin Sirk commented: "Once more our members and researchers have identified that the international association sector has been growing strongly over the last year, as has been the case throughout the last few years of global economic uncertainty. Why is this so?"
"Firstly, almost all international associations have a statutory duty to meet on a regular basis, and their annual or biannual main congresses have become increasingly ’mission critical’ for their communities of members and stakeholders."
"Secondly, economic strength in certain regions of the world is stimulating growth in regionally rotating association meetings, particularly in Asia and Latin America, but we now also see this trend starting to emerge in regions such as Africa and Middle East."
"And thirdly, association congresses are to a large extent driven by scientific, healthcare and technological advances, and we are continuing to live in an era where the accelerated expansion of discovery and innovation is at an unprecedented level, creating entirely new associations and events to share insight into and develop new business from this new knowledge."
"All this augurs well for continuing growth in the future, and any destination or company that wishes to be a serious long-term player in the international meetings business should in ICCA’s view make sure they are involved in the international association sector. In ICCA’s 50th anniversary year, we are truly delighted to be reporting such tremendously positive figures."
As part of ICCA’s 50 year anniversary a special 50 year edition of its international association meetings Statistics Report "A modern history of international association meetings" will be published in September 2013.
ICCA’s International Association Meetings Tables are published every year. To be included, meetings must be held on a regular basis, have at least 50 delegates, and rotate between at least three countries.
