Top Countries and Cities for Meetings in 2022

ICCA at Imex Frankfurt 2023 announced the winners of its annual Country – and City – Rankings for the year 2022 after an absence of two years.

The publication of the rankings coincides with the World Health Organization’s recent declaration that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, thereby emphasising the return to normalcy for the association meetings industry.

At the end of 2022, ICCA made the proactive decision to revert to normal rankings again based on the observation that approximately 85% of all meetings were held in-person. However, we do recognise that certain countries and territories were still working within the confines of COVID-19 restrictions.

In a joint effort with our dedicated members, ICCA’s Research team identified over 10,500 meetings of which some 9,000 meetings were held in-person, being either unaffected by COVID-19 or held in a hybrid format. As the association meetings industry is still catching up to the numbers of the last pre-pandemic year (13,254 meetings in 2019), we conducted a brief country and city comparative analysis based on rankings rather than a number of meetings. In addition, we will provide context to in-person versus planned meetings showing how these statistics can be best utilised.

ICCA CEO, Senthil Gopinath: “This is tremendous undertaking by our team, one that is most welcomed by our members because the ICCA Country – and City – Rankings always generates huge industry interest. It’s heartening to see the drive towards in-person meetings is once more very strong and we predict this trend will grow throughout the coming year.”

ICCA strongly believes that statistics exist to tell a story, and therefore we offer our members various tools to do this in a comprehensive way. There is not a single country where at least one planned meeting was affected by the pandemic in 2022. The ICCA Database displays the status of each meeting, and in the relevant cases, shows the reasoning behind the organiser’s decision not to run a meeting as in-person.

Worldwide Ranking

Number of meetings per country

Rank	Country	# Meetings In-Person 2022
1	USA	690
2	Spain	528
3	Italy	522
4	Germany	484
5	France	472
6	United Kingdom	449
7	Portugal	294
8	Netherlands	253
9	Belgium	234
10	Canada	233
11	Austria	232
12	Japan	228
13	Greece	185
14	Sweden	179
15	Switzerland	175
16	Denmark	169
17	Republic of Korea	162
18	Ireland	152
19	Norway	148
20	Czech Republic	146
20	Finland	146
22	Mexico	145
23	Poland	134
24	Australia	118
25	Brazil	110
26	China	109
27	Argentina	104
28	Colombia	101
28	Singapore	101
30	Chinese Taipei	90
31	Turkey	82
32	Thailand	81
33	Croatia	79
33	Hungary	79
35	UAE	75
36	Malaysia	69
37	India	68
38	Chile	61
38	Iceland	61
40	Slovenia	59
41	Romania	55
41	S. Africa	55
43	Peru	48
44	Estonia	44
45	Indonesia	43
46	Serbia	42
47	Lithuania	40
48	Cyprus	37
49	Uruguay	36
50	Ecuador	33
51	Panama	32
52	Malta	31
53	Israel	30
53	Morocco	30
53	Vietnam	30
56	Luxembourg	28
56	New Zealand	28
58	Latvia	27
59	Dominican Rep.	25
60	Bulgaria	24
61	Costa Rica	23
62	Rwanda	22
63	Egypt	21
64	Georgia	18
64	Paraguay	18
64	Tanzania	18
67	Jordan	17
67	Slovak Rep.	17
69	Guatemala	16
70	Hong Kong	15
71	Senegal	14
72	Bolivia	13
72	Philippines	13
72	Tunisia	13
75	Albania	12
76	Bosnia	11
76	Ghana	11
78	N. Macedonia	10
78	S. Arabia	10
80	Faroe Islands	9
80	Kenya	9
82	Bangladesh	8
82	Cambodia	8
82	Cuba	8
82	Qatar	8
86	Niger	7
86	Puerto Rico	7
86	Zimbabwe	7
89	Bahrain	6
89	Honduras	6
89	Macao	6
89	Nigeria	6
89	Russia	6
94	El Salvador	5
94	Monaco	5
94	Oman	5
	Others	109
	Totals	9042

Worldwide Ranking

Number of meetings per city

Rank	City	Country	# Meetings In-person 2022
1	Vienna	Austria	162
2	Lisbon	Portugal	144
3	Paris	France	134
4	Barcelona	Spain	133
5	Prague	Czech Rep.	129
6	Madrid	Spain	128
7	Berlin	Germany	113
8	Athens	Greece	109
9	Brussels	Belgium	108
10	London	UK	106
11	Dublin	Ireland	105
12	Copenhagen	Denmark	102
13	Singapore	Singapore	101
14	Rome	Italy	79
15	Amsterdam	Netherlands	73
16	Helsinki	Finland	69
17	Oslo	Norway	67
18	Buenos Aires	Argentina	66
18	Milan	Italy	66
18	Seoul	Rep. Of Korea	66
18	Stockholm	Sweden	66
22	Budapest	Hungary	62
23	Istanbul	Turkey	58
24	Montreal, QC	Canada	56
25	Reykjavik	Iceland	55
25	Taipei	Chinese Taipei	55
27	Glasgow	UK	54
27	Porto	Portugal	54
29	Mexico City	Mexico	53
30	Edinburgh	UK	52
30	Warsaw	Poland	52
32	Bangkok	Thailand	50
33	Vancouver, BC	Canada	49
34	Zurich	Switzerland	47
35	Bologna	Italy	45
36	Lyon-St.Etienne	France	43
36	Rotterdam	Netherlands	43
36	Valencia	Spain	43
39	Cracow	Poland	42
40	Ljubljana	Slovenia	40
41	Gothenburg	Sweden	39
41	Tokyo	Japan	39
43	Geneva	Switzerland	38
43	Leuven	Belgium	38
43	Lima	Peru	38
43	Marseille-Aix	France	38
43	Toronto, ON	Canada	38
48	Santiago de Chile	Chile	37
49	Gent	Belgium	36
49	Munich	Germany	36
49	Sevilla	Spain	36
52	Abu Dhabi	UAE	35
52	Boston,MA	U.S.A.	35
52	Kuala	Lumpur	Malaysia
55	Dubai	UAE	34
55	Hamburg	Germany	34
55	Sydney, NSW	Australia	34
58	Bogota	Colombia	33
59	Chicago, IL	U.S.A.	32
60	Florence	Italy	31
60	Melbourne,	Australia	31
60	Panama City	Panama	31
63	Aarhus	Denmark	30
63	Cape Town	S. Africa	30
63	Toulouse	France	30
66	Dubrovnik	Croatia	29
66	Kyoto	Japan	29
66	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	29
66	Vilnius	Lithuania	29
70	Belgrade	Serbia	28
70	Lausanne-Montreux	Switzerland	28
70	Torino	Italy	28
70	Washington,DC	U.S.A.	28
74	Jeju	Rep. Of Korea	27
74	Naples	Italy	27
74	Sao Paulo	Brazil	27
74	Tallinn	Estonia	27
78	Antwerp	Belgium	26
78	Bucharest	Romania	26
78	NYC	U.S.A.	26
78	Thessaloniki	Greece	26
78	Zagreb	Croatia	26
83	Montevideo	Uruguay	25
84	Bali	Indonesia	24
84	Miami, FL	U.S.A.	24
84	Utrecht	Netherlands	24
87	Manchester	UK	23
87	Oxford	UK	23
87	Riga	Latvia	23
90	Bordeaux	France	22
90	Cork	Ireland	22
90	Los Angeles, CA	Angeles,	22
90	Medellin	Colombia	22
94	Belfast	UK	21
94	Cartagena	Colombia	21
94	Graz	Austria	21
94	Kigali	Rwanda	21
94	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	21
94	San Jose	Costa Rica	21
100	Cambridge	UK	20
100	Malaga	Spain	20
100	New Delhi	India	20
100	Nice	France	20
100	San Diego, CA	U.S.A.	20
100	Tampere	Finland	20
100	Uppsala	Sweden	20