Paris named top city for association meetings

The latest stats reveal the leading destinations for association meetings.

Paris was ranked the top city for association meetings in 2018

The US continues to be the top country for association meetings, while Paris is the most popular city, according to the latest statistics by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).

The 2018 ICCA Country and City Rankings reveal the top 20 most popular countries and cities to hold association meetings, based on the number of meetings hosted in one year. Australia made an appearance in the country rankings, placing 13th overall.

The latest statistics captured almost 13,000 rotating association meetings that took place in 2018, which shows an increase of 379 meetings compared to the year before and the largest ever recorded by ICCA.

City rankings

After topping the charts in 2016, Paris, France has returned to the number one spot in 2018 with 212 meetings. Vienna, Austria followed with 172 meetings, then Madrid, Spain (165 meetings), Barcelona, Spain (163 meetings) and Berlin, Germany (162 meetings).

The top 20 cities by number of meetings organised in 2018 are as follows:

Rank	City	# Meetings
1	Paris	212
2	Vienna	172
3	Madrid	165
4	Barcelona	163
5	Berlin	162
6	Lisbon	152
7	London	150
8	Singapore	145
9	Prague	136
10	Bangkok	135
11	Buenos Aires	133
12	Hong Kong	129
13 (tied)	Amsterdam	123
13 (tied)	Tokyo	123
15	Seoul	122
16	Copenhagen	120
17	Brussels	112
18	Dublin	104
19	Stockholm	103
20 (tied)	Budapest	100
20 (tied)	Taipei	100

Country rankings

Unchallenged for over two decades, the US remains the top country for hosting association meetings, with 947 meetings in 2018. Germany remains in second place with 642 meetings, followed by Spain with 595 meetings, France with 579 meetings and the UK with 574 meetings.

The top 20 countries by number of meetings organised in 2018 are as follows:

Rank	Country	# Meetings
1	U.S.A.	947
2	Germany	642
3	Spain	595
4	France	579
5	United Kingdom	574
6	Italy	522
7	Japan	492
8	China	449
9	Netherlands	355
10	Canada	315
11	Portugal	306
12	Republic of Korea	273
13	Australia	265
14	Sweden	257
15	Belgium	252
16	Austria	240
17	Brazil	233
18	Argentina	232
19	Poland	211
20	Switzerland	208

ICCA CEO Senthil Gopinath said this is the largest ever annual snapshot of the immediate past year’s meetings data.

“These results closely follow the release of our 55-year history of the international association meetings market in October 2018,” he said.

ICCA’s latest figures uphold the mature, robust growth pattern we identified in this report and provide more evidence of our firm belief that the association sector continues to be an unrivalled stimulator of global societal development and force for progress across the globe.”