International Congress and Convention Association 2025 Rankings Show Lisbon at the Summit While Global Meeting Hubs Face Intensifying Competition: You Need to Know
Published
Image generated with Ai
International Congress and Convention Association has published its 2025 City and Country Rankings during IMEX Frankfurt, offering a detailed overview of the world’s most active destinations for international association meetings. The annual report is considered a key reference point for the global business events sector, helping destinations evaluate performance and anticipate future demand.
Compiled through ICCA’s Business Intelligence platform, the rankings track international association congresses held across global cities during 2025. While the data reflects completed events, its strategic importance extends into the future, as most association meetings are planned several years ahead. As a result, the 2025 outcomes are already influencing bidding cycles and destination choices for events scheduled through 2027 to 2029.
Lisbon Tops Global Rankings in Competitive Year
In 2025, Lisbon emerged as the world’s leading destination for international association congresses, recording 188 events. The result reflects the city’s growing competitiveness in the global meetings market and its increasing appeal to international associations seeking accessible and cost-efficient European venues.
Paris followed closely with 174 congresses, reinforcing its long-standing position as a global hub for high-profile meetings. Meanwhile, Barcelona secured third place with 166 events, continuing its strong historical performance in the international conference landscape.
The top tier of the rankings remained tightly contested, with European destinations dominating much of the upper table. Cities such as Vienna, Prague, Copenhagen and London all maintained strong positions, reflecting the region’s deep infrastructure network and established reputation in hosting scientific, medical and policy-related congresses.
Europe Retains Structural Advantage in Meetings Sector
A defining feature of the 2025 rankings is Europe’s continued dominance across the global meetings ecosystem. Fourteen of the top 20 cities are located in Europe, while seven of the top 10 positions are also held by European destinations. This concentration highlights the region’s long-established leadership in association-driven conferences.
The strength of Europe lies in its interconnected transport systems, dense concentration of major cities and long history of international collaboration in academia and industry. These factors continue to give European destinations a competitive advantage in attracting rotating congresses, particularly in sectors requiring frequent global participation.
Spain stands out within this landscape, with both Barcelona and Madrid placed in the global top 20. Barcelona’s long-term consistency is especially notable, as it has remained within the top five cities worldwide for 25 consecutive years, a record unmatched by any other destination.
Asia Pacific Continues Steady Expansion
The Asia Pacific region continues to strengthen its position in the global meetings industry, with five cities featured in the top 20 rankings. This reflects sustained investment in convention infrastructure and increasing global demand for destinations outside traditional European strongholds.
Singapore remains the region’s most prominent performer, ranking fifth globally with 156 international association congresses. Its performance highlights its role as a strategic gateway for global business events, supported by strong air connectivity and a well-developed convention ecosystem.
Other key Asia Pacific cities, including Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok and Hong Kong, also maintained strong positions. Their continued presence in the top rankings demonstrates growing regional competitiveness, particularly in fields such as technology, healthcare and scientific research conferences.
Americas Show Limited Presence in Global Top Tier
The 2025 results highlight a continued imbalance in geographic representation across global meetings destinations. While Europe and Asia Pacific dominate the rankings, the Americas remain comparatively underrepresented in the top tier.
Buenos Aires is the only city from outside North America to appear in the global top 20. This underscores both its importance as a leading South American meetings destination and the broader challenges faced by the region in competing with more established global hubs.
Factors such as infrastructure concentration, intercontinental connectivity and established association networks continue to shape this distribution, giving certain regions a structural advantage in attracting large-scale rotating congresses.
Long-Term Planning Shapes Industry Outcomes
ICCA emphasises that its rankings are not simply retrospective statistics but forward-looking indicators of industry movement. International association congresses are typically planned two to five years in advance, meaning that the 2025 performance data is already influencing decisions for events far into the future.
As a result, destinations that rank highly often gain momentum in future bidding cycles, strengthening their ability to attract additional congresses. However, this also leads to increased pressure on venue availability, accommodation capacity and local event infrastructure in top-performing cities.
Competition is expected to intensify further in high-demand sectors such as life sciences, medical research and emerging technologies, where global participation and large delegate numbers are essential.
Market Intelligence and Industry Direction
The ICCA GlobeWatch 2025 report expands on the rankings by offering additional analysis across regions, meeting sizes and industry sectors. This broader dataset provides stakeholders with a clearer understanding of evolving patterns in global association meetings.
Overall, the findings highlight a global market that is both concentrated and competitive. Europe continues to dominate in volume and consistency, Asia Pacific is steadily expanding its influence, and the Americas remain underrepresented at the highest levels.
The 2025 rankings reinforce the importance of long-term strategy, infrastructure investment and global connectivity in determining success within the international meetings industry.
