For the first time in more than a decade, Barcelona is back in first place in the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) rankings of the world's biggest convention cities. The Catalan metropolis had not best known for such an honour since 2004. With 195 major international events, it has risen from third to first place and is now one of the world's most popular events. dethrones Paris and Vienna, tied for second place with 190 world-class events. However, the French capital has nothing to be ashamed of in terms of results over the past year; far from it, in fact, as the number of delegates rose sharply, with 112,000 participants compared with 74,586 in 2016.
Christian Mutschlechner, Director of the Vienna Convention Bureau, is a good sport and, while declaring himself to be ". delighted "of the past year, and congratulated " our partner Barcelona for taking first place ". For over 20 years, Vienna and Barcelona have been working together to offer major associations, particularly medical ones, the opportunity to limit their choice of rotation by meeting once in Central Europe and once in the south of the continent. An approach described by Christian Mutschlechner under the term "coopetitionhalfway between cooperation and competition.
Barcelona's first place brings a little novelty to an often static ranking. Since 2008, the French and Austrian capitals have alternated at the top of the podium, with the exception of 2015 when Berlin topped the rankings. This year, as last year, the German capital is in fourth place ahead of London, which was also fifth in 2016.
Other changes in the 2017 rankings include Madrid's retention of seventh place, Amsterdam's drop to 16th and the entrance to Prague in the world's top 10, up to eighth place. Other beneficiaries of the past year are Buenos Aires, which has moved up from 17th to 11th place, Budapest from 16th to 12th and Hong Kong, from 19th to 13th, while two new cities have made the top 20: Tokyo and Montreal.
There were also few changes in the country rankings, apart from the following France's decline from fourth to sixth place, now overtaken by Spain and Italy. The world's top 3 is still made up of the United States, ahead of Germany and the United Kingdom.
Over and above the changes in this annual ranking, it is above all the strong momentum of the congress market that the ICCA is highlighting. The association counted a record number of events worldwide in 2017 - 12,558 - 346 more than in 2016. " We are in a period of revolutionary change in terms of scientific and technological advances, which are transforming traditional areas such as health and commerce, comments Martin Sirk, CEO of the CICA. To make sense of the tsunami of data and information, associations need to get together. This, we believe, will continue to drive the sector for many years to come. "
