Macau has climbed an impressive 21 places in the International Congress and Convention Association’s (ICCA) latest global city rankings, having hosted a decade record number of meetings last year.
The destination also jumped three places in the Asia Pacific rankings.
ICCA rankings
The ICCA Annual Statistics and Rankings compares destinations’ association conventions performance on a global scale.
In its 2016 report, Macau was acknowledged to have hosted 37 international association meetings, the highest number in the past decade. Association meetings must rotate among at least three countries to qualify.
In 2015, Macau was only said to have hosted 27 such meetings.
“We attribute this great achievement to our close business relationships, working in tandem with the meetings industry supplier community, other government agencies and Macau’s local associations,” said Irene Va Kuan Lau (right), executive director of Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM).
Participants
According to ICCA’s Destination Comparison Report, the estimated total number of participants attending these conventions in 2016 was 25,895.
These included the 11th Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress; ACM Siggraph Asia 2016; 17th International Dragon Award Annual Meeting; and the 8th World Assembly of Zhuang Yan Clan.
This figure is also an all-time high for the past decade.
“Although Macau is a favourite among meeting organisers of big conventions because of our integrated meetings infrastructure, we also work hard to welcome smaller association conventions as these have the power to transform and boost our knowledge and creativity economy,” said Lau.
“These smaller academic, scientific, trade or professional meetings take place in our institutions of higher learning – the University of Macau, the Macau University of Science and Technology, and the Macao Polytechnic Institute – and also at the Macao Science Centre and at our wide range of hotels.”
