Hospitality and Related Services - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 144

Facilities such as those shown are in great demand to meet the needs of the growing association and
corporate meetings market. The small meetings market has important economic impacts. Photocourtesyof
TheBroadmoor.

leading 20 economic nations of the world, while relatively small in terms of number of direct
participants, is one of the most widely covered events on the meeting and convention calendar.
The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) seeks to gather and dis-
seminate information regarding international meetings of its membership. The ICCA repre-
sents the main specialists in handling, transportation, and accommodation for international
events. It comprises more than 900 member corporations and organizations in 85 countries
worldwide.
The ICCA assists members in identifying business leads, primarily by means of the associa-
tion s online database, which provides a historical overview of past association meetings as

well as a means to search for possible future meetings. The ICCA also produces rankings of the
overseas countries and cities that host, or seek to host, meetings organized by international
associations that take place on a regular basis, and that rotate between a minimum of three
countries. The 2010 database, which contains data on 2009, provided the rankings shown in
Table 6.2.
As has been the case since 2004, the United States and Germany are the number one and two
countries, respectively, measured by the number of international meetings organized in 2009.
Spain remains third. Italy jumps from sixth to fourth place, and the United Kingdom remains fifth.
China-P.R. and Austria (which shares tenth place with The Netherlands) are newcomers in the
top ten.
For the fifth year in a row, Vienna is the most popular city. Barcelona jumped from third to second
place, and Paris, which shared first place with Vienna in 2008, is now third. The only newcomer in the
top 20 is Madrid, at thirteenth place. Visit www.iccaworld.org .
There will probably be an oversupply of convention meeting facilities in the United States as
the number of convention centers continues to grow. Many U.S. cities are building new convention
centers or expanding their existing centers. Even though the United States leads the world in

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