The UK has risen one place to fourth, overtaking France, in the annual International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) rankings of the number of large-scale association meetings staged.
Only Spain, Germany and the US now host more association events than the UK, according to the results, released on 11 May.
London has also climbed one place to sixth in the ICCA city rankings, while Paris retains its top position above both Vienna and Madrid. This year, Edinburgh achieved its highest ranking since 2010, moving up nine places to 31.
Caroline Windsor, Joint-Chair of the Association of British Professional Conference Organisers (ABPCO) says: “Associations remain one of the most important elements of the economic impact of conferences, meetings and events held here in the UK. The sheer size and regularity of association events means they can be relied upon to continually deliver spend not just in terms of direct venue, food and beverage expenditure but also in a wider context that benefits the host destination significantly.”
ICCA CEO Martin Sirk comments: “What was striking in this year’s exercise is actually the very large number of meetings we identified and we’re pretty certain we’ll have equal success in finding more qualifying 2014 meetings over the next twelve months."
“With our new ICCA Statistics Tool, ICCA members can also now extract data on meetings that are especially important for their destination, for example if they’re primarily interested in meetings of more than 1,000 delegates, or which are related to a particularly important segment of the association market, such as medical sciences.”
ICCA’s international association meetings tables are published every year. To be included, meetings must be held on a regular basis, have at least 50 delegates, and rotate between at least three countries.
Top 10 Global Cities ranked by number of rotating international meetings held in 2014
1) Paris: 214
2) Vienna: 202
3) Madrid: 200
4) Berlin: 193
5) Barcelona: 182
6) London: 166
7) Singapore: 142
8) Amsterdam: 133
9) Istabul: 130
10) Prague: 118
Top 10 Countries ranked by number of meetings held in 2014
1) USA: 831
2) Germany: 659
3) Spain: 578
4) UK: 543
5) France: 533
6) Italy: 452
7) Japan: 337
8) China: 332
9) Netherlands: 307
10) Brazil: 291