BUDAPEST AMONG THE TOP 20 CITIES IN ICCA RANKINGS

According to a published report by the ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) in the middle of May, 2018 was another successful year in the international conference market: altogether 12,937 – 379 more than in 2017 – such events were held all over the world. Budapest is again among the top 20 cities in the ICCA city ranking, sharing a place with Taipei.

The first place among cities was taken by Paris (again, after 2016), replacing last year’s winner, Barcelona. Vienna stayed in second place, while Madrid joined the top five for the first time since 2015 at 3rd place. The rankings for cities outside Europe are led by Singapore, Bangkok and Buenos Aires, while Hong Kong and Tokyo climbed one and five places higher, respectively. Montréal, Québec and Rome are no longer in the top twenty, but Brussels and Taipei are now among those: the Asian metropolis shares 20th place with Budapest.

The 2018 rank of Budapest in the international ICCA city ranking is approximately the same as in 2015. This means that Budapest – after Vienna, Berlin and Prague – has a stable place as the fourth most well-liked conference location in Central-Europe. 

Based on data from the Hungarian Convention Bureau, Budapest accommodated approximately 2,600 business tourism events in 2018: among these, more than a thousand (40% of all Budapest meetings) were international meetings that hosted almost 148,000 professionals – which is close to 35% of the total number of participants in the reporting year. The average number of participants at each international event was close to 150 persons. 

At the end of February, a large-scale revitalizing development plan for Hungexpo was announced that has the potential to significantly strengthen Budapest’s position on the market for ICCA-recognised large-audience international conferences. As the industry’s press has already announced, the Hungarian government allocated 1.5 billion forints for the development of Hungexpo in order to prepare it for the 2020 Eucharistic Congress and the 2021 World Hunting and Nature Expo. In the framework of the plan, a new congress centre, capable of accommodating 2,000 visitors, will be built as well.

Those interested can get their copies of the free Budapest MICE Guide. updated for the 2019/2020 season. from the middle of May. BFTK and Turizmus Kft. published its joint publication for the third time since 2017, just in time for the IMEX exhibition in Frankfurt. The brochure is an essential guide for business tourism professionals. The Budapest MICE Guide 2019/2020 brochure will be available online – in a digital format – on the following platform: https://www.budapestinfo.hu/mice-guide-of-budapest-1

Source:
https://www.budapestinfo.hu/budapest-among-the-top-20-cities-in-icca-rankings