Vienna conquered the congress throne worldwide in 2024 again!

Vienna conquered the congress throne worldwide in 2024 again!

Wien, Österreich - Vienna once again established itself as the leading congress city in 2024 and recorded the highest number of international congresses worldwide. A total of 154 events took place in the Austrian capital, only followed by Lisbon with 153 and Singapore with 144 events. Other important cities in the ranking are Barcelona, Prague, Paris and Seoul, which also have high numbers of congresses. These successes were largely supported by the Vienna Holding and its subsidiary Viecon, who organized over a third of the congresses in Vienna alone in the Viecon Center, as vienna.at reported.

The importance of congresses for the economic development of Vienna is also underpinned by the numbers: in 2024 there were 6,619 congresses and company meetings in Vienna, which attracted around 670,000 participants. These numbers exceed the records of the previous year by three percent. The congresses led to 1.9 million overnight stays and an impressive added value of 1.32 billion euros, while the tax revenue from this sector was 365 million euros. Mayor Michael Ludwig describes the development of the congress system as a central component of the Vienna Economic and Innovation Strategy until 2030.

congresses in the national context

The development of congress tourism in Austria has been particularly dynamic since the end of Covid pandemic. In 2023, around 1.67 million participants took part in events, which corresponds to an increase of 23.1 % compared to the previous year and almost reached the level of 2019. Around 3.12 million overnight stays were counted, which means an increase of 17.2 %. This shows how important the conference area is for the domestic economy, since it constitutes about 2.1 % of all tourismous things, as bmwet.gv.at.

sustainability in congresses

Another positive trend is the increase in so -called green meetings, which rose sharply in 2023 with 162 congresses organized and over 80,000 participants and increased by 20 % compared to the previous year. This shows the growing awareness of sustainable practices in the congress area. While the average event duration from 2.06 days 2022 decreased to 1.81 days in 2023, the international sector remains stable with an average overnight stay of four nights per participant.

Overall, it becomes clear that Vienna and Austria are excellently positioned in the area of congress tourism and are on a promising path to the future.