Athens Rises as a Conference Destination in the ICCA Rankings

Athens‘ global ranking as a business event destination of choice has gone up three places on the ICCA rankings list, moving the Greek capital city from 27th position in 2014 to 24th position in 2015.

The ICCA (International Congress and Conventions Association) rankings are the most accurate and most reliable gauge in the world of how cities and countries perform in the business events industry. They are compiled by careful tabulation of the number of global and regional association conferences and meetings a destination hosts in a year.

“It is a great success and legacy for Athens that it was able to maintain, during a year of political and economic liquidity as was 2015, its place in the international conference tourism market and strengthen its position among the top 25 congress destinations of the world “, Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis said.

According to the ICCA Research, Athens notched 87 conferences in 2015, compared to 80 held in 2014. The Greek capital city held 57 percent of the total business events held in Greece last year.

According to the Municipality of Athens, the city’s performance contributed significantly to Greece maintaining the 26th place on the ICCA rankings list for countries as other Greek cities recorded a downward trend in the number of conferences they hosted.

Athens is also ranked 18th in Europe, up one place from last year.

“This remarkable performance is the result of the cooperation of all of our city agencies, and coordinated joint actions implemented in recent years… The systematic collective work carried out by the Athens Development & Destination Management Agency (ADDMA) and Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) brought results and vindicates the efforts of all of us to strengthen the tourism economy of Athens”, Mayor Kaminis said.

The ICCA rankings are the yardstick by which international associations and corporates measure a destination’s business event hosting capability. They are a powerful endorsement of professionalism and excellent infrastructure.