Portugal’s capital Lisbon is the sixth most popular city for international meetings, according to the International Congress & Convention Association’s ranking.
The ICCA said in a statement that the Portuguese capital ranked higher than cities like London and Singapore, having climbed three places in the ranking, which has Paris at the top.
The director general of the Lisbon Tourism Association, Vítor Costa, said that “Lisbon welcomed 50 percent of the events that were held in Portugal.”
He added that Lisbon’s position in the rankings would give rise to the creation of a large congress centre to overcome a lack of equipment.
“These results make the proposal made in successive tourism strategic plans more relevant, consisting in the creation of a big international congress centre, able to hold big meetings which today are unlikely to be carried out in Lisbon due to a lack of existing equipment,” Costa said.
According to the note by the ICCA, Lisbon is one of the main destinations in the business tourism sector due to its international prestige, excellence, quality and price of touristic services and experience in holding diverse events among other factors.
The global meetings industry trade association captured a total of 12,937 rotating association meetings taking place in 2018, at an increase of 379 additional meetings compared to the number recorded at the same time in 2017.
The highest annual figure ICCA has ever recorded in its yearly Statistics, these new rankings signal industry growth is continuing on a strong and robust trajectory.
Paris, which previously held the top city spot in 2016, returns in 2018 to claim first place.
The U.S.A. continues to top the country rankings.
Paris climbs to the top of the city rankings by the number of international association meetings with a landslide margin of 40 meetings above second place holder Vienna.
In 2017, Paris and Vienna held joint second place, with 190 meetings each. Last year’s number one Barcelona falls to fourth place, with Madrid entering the top 5 for the first time since 2015 in third place. Among the top 5 cities for another year, Berlin falls to fifth place from fourth in 2017.
