ICCA Rankings
Bigger is better, for resilience In 2025, nine out of ten international and regional association meetings welcomed fewer than 1,000 participants. Yet the resilience story belongs to the largest congresses. Meetings of 1,000 participants or more have returned to or exceeded their 2019 levels, with the largest congresses, those above 3,000, back exactly where they were. Mega conventions proved the most durable format of all.
Meetings with 50 to 249 participants represent the largest share of total meeting volume, at 60.4 % in 2025. The 250 to 999 range follows at 31.8 %. Together, these two categories account for most international and regional association meetings worldwide.
Since 2016, meeting sizes have remained stable, ICCA reports, with smaller meetings more frequent. Annual meetings account for 63.1 % of recorded events, making them the most common rotation cycle by far. Larger congresses run on longer cycles, so they are less frequent and take longer to secure.
According to the 2025 data, the 250 to 999 category stands out as the sweet spot – accessible for a wide range of destinations, yet delivering US $ 1.3m in average estimated delegate spend per meeting.
Smaller meetings in the 50-499 range anchor pipeline consistency through volume and frequency. Large congresses of 1,000 or more generate almost 52 % of total estimated spending from just 8 % of meetings, but winning them requires more complex coordination and longer lead times.
The most consistent performers in the city rankings, such as Vienna and Lisbon, are built on broad pipelines across all sizes.
Subject rankings Medical Sciences, Technology, and Sciences are ICCA’ s top three subject rankings again in 2025. Within those categories, country and city-level patterns tell a more specific story.
At the country level, Japan does not rank among the top five by meeting volume, but it is influential in the technology sector: Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama combined host significant portions of the technology association meetings.
Spain is strong in medical sciences, with Barcelona and Madrid among the highest globally. Italy spreads across sectors, and Germany anchors heavily in the medical sciences, with secondary strengths elsewhere.
Many cities are building sector depth beyond the overall volume rankings. Dublin ranks in the top ten globally for both medical sciences and science meetings, a breadth that reflects Ireland’ s research and life sciences base.
Taipei performs consistently across all three leading sectors, appearing in the top 15 for medical sciences, science, and technology. Montreal ranks sixth globally in technology meetings, confirming its position as a leading hub. Porto’ s ranking of ninth in science meetings is one of 2025’ s more notable city-level findings, given its overall meeting volume.
Athens and Istanbul, while outside the top ten overall, each hold positions in
the top 20 of the medical sciences, a signal of emerging destination strength in a high-value sector.
What the data tells us A sector-driven strategy is a proven way to win bids for international and regional association meetings. Which sectors your destination wins in matters as much as the number of meetings you host overall. The most effective destinations build sector strength deliberately, by aligning with their existing research institutions, industry clusters, and academic networks. For many destinations, it is the strategy.
“ The GlobeWatch 2025 ICCA Country and City Rankings Report stands as a testament to our industry’ s resilience,” said ICCA CEO Senthil Gopinath.“ Beyond the headline rankings, there is rich analysis by region, meeting size, subject sector, and the newest addition, venue types. Our aim is to ensure that the intelligence is actionable: a resource that guides our members to make smarter decisions, pursue stronger business opportunities, and build more compelling cases for government advocacy and private investment.
“ The 162 countries and territories, along with 1,603 cities represented in this year’ s rankings, reflect a global community that is engaged and ambitious. The 2025 ICCA GlobeWatch shows where the world met last year. The choices made by every member of this community, starting today, will determine where the world meets next.” n
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