Top Destinations For Association Events – The Icca Stats

ICCA’s annual statistics on the number of rotating international association meetings hosted by countries and cities show few changes for 2014.

Paris retains the top rank, with Vienna swapping places with Madrid and moving up from three to two, and Berlin and Barcelona swapping places at four and five respectively. 

Vancouver is North America’s top destination for international meetings, ahead of Montreal, Washington and Chicago. 

With regular jockeying for position between rival destinations, numerous short-term reasons why space isn’t always available for association meetings and with more meetings still to be discovered by ICCA and its members, these don’t represent any dramatic changes. 

Top 20 city ranking by number of meeting organised in 2014

Rank City Number of Meetings in 2014

1 Paris 214

2 Vienna 202

3 Madrid 200

4 Berlin 193

5 Barcelona 182

6 London 166

7 Singapore 142

8 Amsterdam 133

9 Istanbul 130

10 Prague 118

11 Brussels 112

12 Lisbon 109

13 Copenhagen 105

14 Beijing 104

15 Seoul 99

16 Hong Kong 98

17 Budapest 97

  Rome 97

19 Stockholm 95

20 Taipei 92

The top five countries all remain in that top echelon, with USA retaining top ranking, Germany and Spain ranking two and three, whilst UK and France swap places into fourth and fifth place respectively.

Top 20 country ranking by number of meeting organised in 2014

Rank Country Number of Meetings in 2014

1 U.S.A. 831

2 Germany 659

3 Spain 578

4 United Kingdom 543

5 France 533

6 Italy 452

7 Japan 337

8 China-P.R. 332

9 Netherlands 307

10 Brazil 291

11 Austria 287

12 Canada 265

13 Australia 260

14 Sweden 238

15 Portugal 229

16 Switzerland 226

17 Republic of Korea 222

18 Argentina 191

19 Turkey 190

20 Belgium 187

ICCA undertook a major review of historical data over the last twelve months, removing all meetings from the statistics which no longer met the strict three-country rotation criterion and clamping down on single meetings which might previously have appeared as multiple separate meetings. As a result the normal levels of growth appear to be slightly reduced, even though ICCA believes that the underlying rate of growth is almost certainly still robust.  

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.