The international association meetings market - ICCA

The international association meetings
market 1998-2007
13
measured by the number of international
meetings organised per year. Spain, fifth in
2006, climbs two places to third in 2007.
Number of meetings per city
As in 2005 and 2006, Vienna tops the charts as
the most popular city; its first place has even
become stronger compared to previous years.
Berlin jumps four places to number two and
Singapore remains third.
Participant numbers
In the year 2000 the average number of
participants per meeting was the highest over
the past 10 years with an average of 838
participants per international meeting. Since
2000 the average number of participants
per meeting dropped, reaching the lowest
average of the past 10 years in 2005 with
629 participants per meeting. In 2006 the
average number climbed to 689, but in 2007
the average was 656 participants per meeting,
which is a drop of 16 compared to last year.
Most meetings in the Association Database
have between 250 and 500 participants, and
more than 15% of all the meetings have more
than 1000 participants.
The estimated total number of participants to
all meetings in the ICCA Association Database
is over 4.2 billion.
As in the number of meetings per country
ranking, the U.S.A. is the number one country
measured by the estimated total number
of participants per country, with 427,556
participants in 2007. Italy is second and
Germany is third.
The city that hosted most events in 2007,
Vienna, also is the number one city measured
by estimated total number of participants in
2007. Barcelona takes second place in this
ranking and Berlin third.
Frequency
The number of annual meetings has relatively
increased over the past 10 years from 47%
in 1998 to 58% in 2007, which is the highest
percentage of the last 10 years. The amount
of biennial meetings (which means they take
place every 2 years) is gradually dropping over
the years from 30% of all meetings in 1998 to
21% in 2007, which is the lowest percentage of
the last 10 years.
Favourite months and length
September has been the most popular month
for organising international meetings over
the past 10 years. The period from May until
October has always been the most popular
time to organise meetings in the past 10 years.
Over the last 10 years meetings became
shorter; the average length of a meeting in
1998 was 4.44 days, in 2007 the average of a
meeting is 3.94 days, which is the exact same
average as 2006.
Venues used
Since 2005, “Meeting facilities in Hotels” has
taken over as most popular type of venue to
organise an event from “Conference/Exhibition
Centres”. In 2007 the usage of meeting
facilities in hotels consolidated it’s first place
with 41.4%. Usage of conference/exhibition
centres lost more ground in 2007 and is now
32.7%. The use of universities as a congress
venue has risen one percentage point to
16.4%. Usage of other venues, like castles,
boats etc. was 9.5% in 2007.
Subjects
Medical Science has been the most occuring
subject of international association meetings
in the last 10 years, even though the relative
number of meetings with a medical science
subject has dropped from 19.6% in 1998
to 18.5% in 2007. Technology, Science and
Industry have always been in the top 4 with
Medical Sciences for the last 10 years.
Registration fees and total expenditure
The average registration fee per delegate per
meeting in 2007 is USD 565. This is the highest
average registration fee since 2004.
The estimated total income on all meetings in
the ICCA Association Database is over USD 11
billion in 2007, which is an all-time record.
The International Association Meetings Market 1998-2007