International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) 2017 Report
The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) released its full report for 2017. Turkey hosted a total of 57 congresses, placing 49th on the list. Istanbul, which hosted a total of 20 international congresses last year, shared 133rd place on ICCA’s list of congress cities with Antwerp, Denver, Miami, Lund, Marrakesh, Poznan, and St. Julian’s.
According to the ICCA report, a total of 12,558 congresses were held worldwide in 2017. Turkey, which hosted 57 of these international congresses, welcomed 41,279 people, while the number of people attending the 20 congresses held in Istanbul was 25,516.
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Barcelona ranked first in the ICCA city ranking by number of meetings held, for the first time since 2004. The association/union meetings market continues to show strong growth.
With 346 additional meetings held in 2017, a total of 12,558 international association/union meetings were held in 2017.
2017 City ranking: Barcelona took first place, surpassing Paris and Vienna...
While the cities in this year’s top 5 remained the same as in 2015, Barcelona took the top spot, leaving behind Paris and Vienna, which had regularly held first and second place. While Vienna held its previous position in second place alongside Paris, Berlin and London ranked fourth and fifth. While Madrid remained in seventh place again this year, last year’s other number seven, Amsterdam, dropped out of the top 10 to 16th place. Prague ranked eighth. As in 2016, Singapore, Lisbon, and Seoul were sixth, ninth, and 10th, respectively.
Notable increases: Buenos Aires rose from 17th to 11th, Budapest from 16th to 12th, and Hong Kong from 19th to 13th. Rome remained in 20th place, as it did last year. New entries to the top 20 in 2017 were Tokyo and Montreal.
2017 Country ranking: USA in first place
Since 2016, there has not been much change in the top 10 country ranking, apart from a small shift in position. As it has been for the past twenty years, the USA is in the number one position with 941 meetings. The countries in the top 3 did not change, with Germany and the United Kingdom ranking second and third. France dropped out of the top 5 and fell to sixth place, with Spain and Italy rising to fourth and fifth place. Japan ranked seventh, as it did last year. China dropped one place to eighth. Portugal dropped out of the top 10 to settle in 11th place. Argentina dropped two places to 21st, and Denmark entered at 20th place.