Madrid climbs to fourth place in the ICCA ranking

The progression of Madrid in the list of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has been meteoric, from 22nd in 2008, to sixth in 2011 and now fourth in 2012, after beating his own record with 164 international congresses, representing a growth of 26% in a year.

With this figure Madrid breaks 10 years of hegemony in which there has been no movement in the top 5, and for the first time passed Barcelona.

The top 10 countries showed little change in ranking, with the top seven repeating their positions, led by the USA, Germany and Spain. United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Brazil are on places 4 through 7.

After the aftermath of cancellations due to the earthquake and tsunami, Japan jumped back into the top 10 from 13th to 8th place. The Netherlands remained 9th and China dropped from 8th to 10th place. Austria just falls out of the top 10 to 11th place.

ICCA CEO Martin Sirk commented: “Once more our members and researchers have identified that the international association sector has been growing strongly over the last year, as has been the case throughout the last few years of global economic uncertainty. Why is this so?”

“Firstly, almost all international associations have a statutory duty to meet on a regular basis, and their annual or biannual main congresses have become increasingly “mission critical” for their communities of members and stakeholders.”

“Secondly, economic strength in certain regions of the world is stimulating growth in regionally rotating association meetings, particularly in Asia and Latin America, but we now also see this trend starting to emerge in regions such as Africa and Middle East.”

“And thirdly, association congresses are to a large extent driven by scientific, healthcare and technological advances, and we are continuing to live in an era where the accelerated expansion of discovery and innovation is at an unprecedented level, creating entirely new associations and events to share insight into and develop new business from this new knowledge.”

“All this augurs well for continuing growth in the future, and any destination or company that wishes to be a serious long-term player in the international meetings business should in ICCA´s view make sure they are involved in the international association sector. In ICCA´s 50th anniversary year, we are truly delighted to be reporting such tremendously positive figures.”