ASSOCIATION NEWS – Worldwide ICCA ranking 2021
The report of the ICCA International Congress and Convention Association with a ranking of cities and countries was published on 30 May 2022, showing the number of association events in the world in 2021. Poland was ranked 18th, with 158 meetings.
The ICCA Ranking is created based on the collected data about meetings which take place cyclically, have at least 50 participants and migrate between at least three countries. The data are delivered to the ICCA mainly by city and regional Convention Offices, but also by the members of the association, such as Conference Centres or Hotels.
In 2021, the USA was the leader among countries (512 meetings), with Spain ranking second (369 meetings), and Germany third (354 meetings). Leaders among cities include Vienna, Lisbon and Athens. The ranking also includes Polish cities. The frontrunners among them are Warsaw (49 meetings) and Kraków (45 meetings). They are followed by Poznań (15 meetings,) Gdańsk (13 meetings) and Wrocław (12 meetings).
Last year, the ranking was not updated because of the pandemic. This year, the ICCA developed the Destination Performance Index (DPI) in order to recognise and reward efforts made by the destinations with respect to: winning the original offer, rules related to COVID, adaptability and technological capabilities related to the conversion of events on site into virtual/hybrid events, which allows for maintaining continuity of business. The DPI consists of the following performance indicators, which are based on the number of meetings:
- Planned meetings
- Meetings with no changes
- Virtual meetings
- Hybrid meetings
- Digitisation: Virtual/Hybrid
- Continuation of activity: intact/virtual/hybrid
All of the abovementioned indicators result in separate rankings, which are combined into the DPI. The DPI can be perceived as an aggregated ranking of 6 individual rankings. The DPI is available at a global/regional level, and at the level of a country/city.
The ICCA Ranking, which allows for the comparison of destinations, is the most popular and renowned report in the meetings industry. It is also an irreplaceable source of information about global trends.
Source: www.iccaworld.org
Author: Anna Górska, Board Advisor at Symposium Cracoviense, Board Member at ICCA, Consultant at HelmsBriscoe, Vice-President of the Board at SKKP