Besides a bit of musical chairs it was a case of ‘as you were’ in the meetings industry following the publication of ICCA’s country and city rankings report 2011. London, however, has broken into the top ten of the meetings-per-city rankings for the first time.
There was no change at the top, with the USA once again topping the meetings-per-country table. Germany, Spain, UK, France and Italy all held onto their places behind the USA, in that order. Brazil jumped two places from ninth to seventh, ousting Japan which slumped to 13th. The Netherlands, previously 13th, finished in ninth spot having hosted 72 more meetings, while Austria broke into the top ten, replacing Switzerland who fell two places to 12th.
In the city rankings, Vienna spearheaded the list for the seventh time. Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and Singapore trailed behind, with Paris swapping places with Barcelona to take second place. London was the big mover – leaping seven places to occupy the seventh spot, having hosted 115 meetings which met ICCA’s criteria, compared to 97 in 2010. The improvement probably reflects the opening of the city’s first convention centre, ICC at ExCEL, in May 2010, and hype surrounding the London 2012 Olympics.
A spokesperson for London & Partners, the organisation responsible for promoting the city, welcomed the figures and said they would comment fully once they had read the full report.
All association meetings in the ICCA Association Database must rotate between at least three countries, attract at least 50 delegates and take place regularly. Once again the data showed a steady climb in the overall number of meetings held.