Kraków Meetings Industry 2025 Report - now available

The 17th edition of the Kraków Meetings Industry 2025 report, prepared by the Kraków University of Economics Foundation, has been published. The report presents the latest overview of business tourism in the city and highlights the key trends shaping Kraków's meetings industry.

The year 2025 proved to be a record-breaking one in terms of the number of business events organised in Kraków, while also revealing significant changes in the structure of the market, organisers' preferences and participant behaviour.

More Events, Smaller Groups

In 2025, Kraków hosted 5,341 business meetings with more than 50 participants, representing an increase of 14.9% compared to the previous year and the highest figure recorded since the research began.

The international meetings segment experienced particularly dynamic growth, increasing by 46%. At the same time, the total number of participants fell by 6%, reaching just over 1.16 million attendees. This was mainly the result of a 25% decline in attendance at international events, indicating the growing popularity of smaller, more specialised meetings.

Corporate Events Drive Market Growth

Corporate and incentive events accounted for the largest share of the market, representing 60.8% of all business meetings organised in Kraków.

Their number increased by almost 20% compared with 2024.

Conferences and congresses continued to account for 36.5% of all events and attracted 44% of all participants. However, it was the corporate meetings segment that contributed most significantly to the market's overall growth.

Universities Regain Their Role as Conference Hosts

The year 2025 marked a clear return of Kraków's universities as important venues for academic and professional events.

Hotels remained the primary meeting venues, hosting 73% of all business events. However, the academic sector recorded the strongest growth.

A total of 854 events took place at Kraków's universities—an increase of 135% compared with 2024. Attendance at conferences organised by higher education institutions also rose significantly, increasing by 82% to 369,000 participants.

This trend may reflect both the return of academic events to university campuses and organisers' growing interest in more cost-effective venue solutions.

At the same time, specialised congress and exhibition centres recorded a decline in their share of the conference market.

Record Economic Impact and Growth of the Premium Segment

In 2025, visitors to Kraków—including both leisure tourists and business event participants—spent PLN 15.4 billion in the city, representing an increase of 70.2% compared with the previous year.*

The premium hospitality segment also continued to grow.

The number of guests staying in five-star hotels increased by almost 13%, while four-star hotels recorded growth of 6.5%.

International visitors remain the key customers of the luxury hospitality sector, particularly travellers from the United States and the United Arab Emirates, whose average expenditure was approximately four times higher than that of domestic visitors.

Sustainability Strengthens Kraków's Competitiveness

Kraków continues to implement its sustainable events policy, achieving a score of 62% in the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index.

The city is also seeing a steady increase in the number of venues holding internationally recognised environmental certifications. More than 30 organisations in Kraków have now obtained sustainability certificates.

ICCA GlobeWatch 2025 Confirms Kraków's Position Among Europe's Leading Meetings Destinations

According to the ICCA GlobeWatch 2025 ranking, Kraków ranked 31st in Europe and 61st worldwide, hosting 44 international association meetings that met ICCA's qualification criteria.

Poland also maintained a strong international position, ranking 21st globally in the ICCA country rankings.

The ICCA ranking includes only recurring international association meetings that rotate between at least three countries, attract a minimum of 50 in-person participants and are held on a regular basis.

These results once again confirm Kraków's strong position as a recognised and competitive European destination for conferences, congresses and corporate events.

Changing Seasonality and Evolving International Markets

As in previous years, May remained the busiest month for business events.

However, March ranked second while recording the highest number of participants during the year.

Particularly noteworthy was February, when attendance at international meetings increased by 250% compared with the same period in the previous year.

Among international source markets, the United Kingdom remained Kraków's largest market.

Spain moved into third place, overtaking both Italy and France, confirming the growing diversification of Kraków's key international markets.

Open Data – Business Tourism

Those interested in analysing Kraków's meetings industry can access publicly available data through the City's Open Data Portal.

The dataset includes information on the number of business meetings and participants between 2019 and 2025, making it possible to analyse changes in Kraków's business tourism sector and identify long-term trends in the development of the MICE industry.

The full report is available for download here.

Based on the "Tourism in Kraków 2024" survey conducted by Prof. Krzysztof Borkowski, Prof. Tadeusz Grabiński, Prof. Renata Seweryn and Dr Leszek Mazanek.

This article is part of the City of Kraków's publication series on the state of tourism in Kraków. The series aims to explain key issues and trends shaping the city's tourism sector, present evidence-based analyses of its strengths and challenges, and encourage active dialogue between residents, businesses and local government.