Prague is the World’s 5th Most Popular Meeting Destination

The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) released its rankings of congress metropolises for 2022: Vienna once again takes 1st place worldwide in the ICCA City Ranking, ahead of Lisbon and Paris.

Vienna ranked 1st also in the 2021 overall ranking, which was published in 2022.

The ICCA City Ranking Report examines globally held international congress events in 2022. While Vienna reclaims the top spot worldwide with 166 hosted meetings, in 2nd and 3rd place are Lisbon (144) and Paris (134) respectively, followed by Barcelona (133), Prague (129), Madrid (128), Berlin (133), Athens (109), Brussels (108) and London (106).

Following the international trend that sees destinations hosting in-person meetings again, the latest ICCA Ranking Report refers to meetings & congresses that took place in-person in each meeting destination.

Prague hosted nearly four thousand events and welcomed 616,000 delegates last year, marking a significant increase compared to the pandemic-affected years.

However, Prague’s congress attendance still falls short of the record-breaking years of 2018 and 2019, despite notable progress on an international scale.

Although the number of events held in Prague last year represented only 66% of the figure from 2019, the attendance levels were considerably higher. The lingering effects of the pandemic, coupled with related restrictions both domestically and abroad, as well as the Ukrainian war outbreak, contributed to the lower event count.

Prague successfully hosted 616,597 delegates in 2022, equivalent to 86% of the participation seen in the record-breaking congress year of 2019.

These statistics serve as further evidence that face-to-face interaction remains invaluable, particularly in business meetings, as highlighted by Roman Muška, Director of the Prague Convention Bureau.

Prague’s ascent into the top five destinations is a remarkable accomplishment, especially considering its 19th-place ranking in 2010. This improvement of 14 positions can be attributed to the concerted efforts of various organizations involved in the development of the congress industry.