Barcelona, leading global city in participants and fourth in number of congresses

Again this year, Barcelona is one of the world’s top cities for congress tourism. It ranks first in the number of participants that attend and has climbed from fifth to fourth place in the number of congresses hosted. These figures were released in the latest report from the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), which has been publishing its prestigious ranking for the past 24 years. Notably, Barcelona is the highest-ranked non-capital city.

Within this ranking, Vienna tops the list with 154 congresses, followed by Lisbon (153), Singapore (144), Barcelona (142) and Prague (131). However, Barcelona is, by far, the city with the highest number of delegates in 2024 (125,826), generating financial return of over €350 million. London, Singapore, Madrid and Vienna trail the Catalan capital on this ranking, which only considers rotating international congresses held in at least three different cities, excluding permanent events such as the MWC or the ISE.

Taking into account all association and corporate events (congresses, conferences, conventions, training courses and incentive trips) held in the city, the figures rise significantly. Barcelona hosted a total of 1,968 events in 2024, welcoming a grand total of 734,818 participants (85.6% foreigners), up 23% over the previous year.

According to Turisme de Barcelona, the total economic impact of these events in the city amounted to €1.384 billion. It is also worth highlighting that the Catalan capital consolidated its global leadership in hosting medical congresses, with 56 in total, making up 27.3% of all events, followed by academic events (16.3%) and scientific ones (15.4%).

The ICCA report was presented at IMEX, the leading international trade fair for the meetings, events and incentive travel industry, recently held in Frankfurt.