EU dominates ICCA top twenty
Europe's cities hosted the vast majority of large events last year, a report by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) said today (May 18).
Of the top 20 cities in the list 13 were European, equivalent to 1,236 out of a total of 1,797 events.
Paris and Vienna came in joint first place having hosted 139 ‘qualifying' meetings. London and Tokyo came in joint last place with 68 meetings each.
Events must be held on a regular basis, rotate between at least three countries and have no fewer than 50 delegates to qualify, the ICCA said.
Singapore and Seoul were the only non-European cities in the top ten, at fourth and ninth place with 118 and 84 events held respectively.
The US topped the country rankings with 507, a list otherwise dominated by Europe which took 14 of the top 20 places.
Germany and the US have held the top two places since 2004. France and Spain saw large increases of 79 and 40 events hosted respectively.
ICCA marketing project manager Mathijs Vleeming said Asia and Latin America countries had "climbed the rankings" over the last year.
Mr Vleeming acknowledged Europe's dominance but said figures relied on data sent in by its members.
The ICCA database, from which the rankings are created, does not include one-off events and those which do not move between countries.
ICCA said its researchers had identified 7,475 events in 2008, up by around 800 year-on-year.
"Partly this reflects the strength of the market, partly it is thanks to a record number of ICCA members sending us their calendar information to help identify new events," it said.
The ICCA will release its full report in June. A ten year report covering 1999-2008 is due out in July.
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