Middle East booming for international association meetings

The number of regularly-occurring, internationally-rotating association meetings in the Middle East has more than tripled in the last 10 years, according to new figures released by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).

The report, 'A Modern History of International Association Meetings: 1963-2012', which was published as part of ICCA's 50th anniversary, shows that the total number of regularly-occurring, internationally-rotating association meetings is increasing by 100% every 10 years, and has been consistently doing so for the last half century, with no signs of a slowdown. The number of meetings in the Middle East has even grown quicker than in other regions, as it more than tripled in the last 10 years.

Acknowledging the growing importance of the Middle East meetings market, ICCA opened its first ICCA Middle East Regional Office in 2012, which is leveraging the association's key expertise in the international association meetings sector, and the association is also extending its activities in the Middle East region.

Commenting on the findings, ICCA Chief Executive Martin Sirk explained "our statistics are proving what we have long suspected: that the world is experiencing an unprecedentedly revolutionary period in terms of knowledge creation, and that association meetings are growing exponentially in tandem, as primary vectors for disseminating that knowledge.

"The Middle East joined the information revolution more recently than most regions, so it is not surprising to see some of the world's fastest growth rates here, now that excellent meetings infrastructure has been developed, governments have created knowledge strategies to underpin their economic development agendas, and local demand for education and knowledge-transfer is at an all-time high. We are confident that the region will enjoy even greater international meetings activity in the future, based on these underlying fundamentals."

Click here to view the full report.