Updated on 24 May at 2pm
Back to the old days. Although the ICCA presented a ranking of the major congress cities last year, it was heavily skewed by the large number of events that had to switch to virtual or hybrid formats because of the pandemic. With the gradual resumption of "in person" events Throughout the past year, the ICCA's rankings for 2022 more clearly reflect convention activity around the world. " At the end of 2022, the CICA took the proactive decision to return to a normal ranking based on the observation that approximately 85 % of all meetings were held in person." says the International Congress and Convention Association.
Presented at the IMEX trade fair in Frankfurt, this ranking is based on an analysis of 10,500 meetings, including 9,000 face-to-face meetings. This compares with 13,254 in 2019. However, Senthil Gopinath, Director General of the ICCA, takes a positive view of this figure: " It is heartening to see that the trend towards face-to-face meetings is once again very strong, and we expect it to continue to grow over the coming year." .
It's like a return to the old days, then, for the CICA 2022 ranking. Long before, in fact, since Vienna is once again the world's leading conference citywith 162 events organised last year. Long the leader, the Austrian capital relinquished top spot in the middle of the last decade, mostly to Paris, but also to Berlin in 2016. "We see this latest success as a mandate to continue working with all the energy necessary to ensure Vienna's future as a congress metropolis.said Christian Woronka, Director of the Vienna Convention Bureau. We are positioning the city as a modern meeting destination and a model city in terms of ecological and social sustainability." .
Behind Vienna, Lisbon and Paris complete the podium
While the year 2021 was largely turned upside down by the pandemic, Vienna managed to maintain its position between virtual and hybrid events, topping the ICCA rankings, in front of Lisbon. The Portuguese capital has continued to build on this momentum, holding on to second place thanks to the 144 events it hosted.
The return of physical meetings has enabled Paris to make a comeback in the top three, whereas Paris was only able to host 50 of the 84 events planned for 2021, including 7 face-to-face events, 31 virtual events and 12 hybrid events. The French capital thus completes the 2022 podium with 134 congresses, one more than Barcelona, just behind in the rankings. " Paris is committed above all to hosting congresses in line with a responsible and innovative citycommented Corinne Menegaux, Managing Director of Paris je t'aime - Office de Tourisme. By meeting the new expectations of professionals and making it easier for them to attend events, we are boosting the attractiveness of the destination while ensuring a positive legacy for the region."
While long-haul connections with the American and Asian continents were limited for a long time last year, European conference cities took the top ten places in the rankings. And even more, since the first non-European city is Singaporein thirteenth place. Prague, Madrid, Berlin, Athens, Brussels, London, Dublin, Copenhagen: all these major cities are ahead of Asia's biggest conference city.
With its position at the crossroads of continents, Europe is the crossroads of world events, almost by tradition. But this trend has become even more pronounced in 2022, as a result of the travel restrictions. Of the top 20 countries, only four are not on this continent: the United States, the world leader, but also Canada, Japan and South Korea. By way of comparison, there were eight in 2019. China, Australia, Argentina and Brazil, in order of importance, have all disappeared from the top 20.
From the 7e with 539 events, China, for example, fell back to 25ewith 109 congresses organised. Some regional centres held up better than others, such as Singapore in Asia, Seoul, Taipei and Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Montreal and Mexico City in the Americas, Cape Town and Kigali in Africa, and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Middle East.
An analysis of major congress activity also shows that Germany, a major country for trade fairs and exhibitions, has dropped from 714 events to 484 world congresses, moving up from second place to fourth. Just ahead of France, which dropped from third to fifth place. Behind Paris, other French cities appear in the ICCA rankings: Lyon-Saint Etienne (36e)Marseille-Aix (43e), Toulouse (63e), Bordeaux (90e), Nice (100e), Montpellier and Strasbourg (114e ex aequo), Nancy (149e), Grenoble (153e), Lille (164e), Rennes (186e), Nantes (223e), Cannes (292e), Avignon and Biarritz (326e ex aequo).
