2015 witnessed a record-breaking number of more than 12,000 international meetings of associations, 571 more than in the previous year. The USA continues to lead the way in the category of countries, while Berlin triumphed among cities, leaping from fourth place and overtaking Paris, last year’s winner.

Berlin owes its victory to the considerable decrease in the number of meetings staged in the cities, which last year took the first three places. In the period under analysis the number of international events staged by associations in Paris dropped by 28 when compared to the year before, in Vienna - by 24 (fourth place) and in Madrid – by as many as 29 (fifth place ex aequo with London). Despite a slight decrease in the number of hosted meetings, Barcelona climbed to third place in the ranking. The list of the most popular destinations also included London, Singapore, Istanbul, Lisbon and Copenhagen, the latter two moving into the top 10.

 

With the 2015 meetings distributed among a larger number of cities, the heretofore less recognised destinations were predominantly on the rise and increasingly often drew the attention of association meetings’ organisers.

 

62 meetings earned Warsaw 40th place and made it the highest-ranked Polish city, followed by Kraków (49th), Gdańsk (126th), Wrocław (139th), Poznań (222nd) and Katowice (373rd).

Changes among the top 10 countries were rather cosmetic. The USA remained the unquestionable leader (925 meetings, 94 more than in the year before) and Germany once again took the second place (667 meetings, an increase of 8). The UK hosted 39 meetings more than in 2014 and moved up the ranking, securing the third position. Further down the list were Spain (572 meetings, a decrease of 6) and France (522 meetings, a decrease of 11). The list of the most popular picks for international meetings of associations continues to feature Italy, Japan, China and the Netherlands. Canada has also joined the top 10.

 

With 193 meetings, Poland was ranked 21st and moved up three spots when compared to 2014.

 

ICCA compiles its ranking on the basis of collected data about association meetings, which are held on a regular basis, have at least 50 delegates and rotate between at least three countries.

 

Source: www.iccaworld.com