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News • City of Brussels • Belgium • 2013-06-30

BRUSSELS IN TOP SPOT AGAIN

BRUSSELS IN TOP SPOT AGAIN

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It’s getting to be a habit, and a very nice one for the city of Brussels.

For the fourth consecutive year, Brussels is rated N° 1 European city for association conferences and second in the world after Singapore.

These are the topline findings of the 2012 International Meetings Statistics, produced by the Union of International Associations (UIA). The data shows that the capital of Europe hosted 547 international association conferences last year – over 200 more than the its nearest European rival.

This positive trend is confirmed by the ICCA (International Congress & Convention Association) in its Country & City Rankings 2012. These worldwide rankings – which only measure regularly-occurring congresses that rotate between countries – show that Brussels has climbed from 22nd place to 14th in the last two years.

Growing conference sector

The meetings market is driving tourism business in Brussels. According to INS (Institut national de statistique) data, of more than 6 million overnight stays in 2012 (up 0.3% vs 2011), total professional overnight stays (54.5% of total) increased by 2.8% while congress and conference overnight stays leaped 5.2% to almost 40% of total stays.

Visitors feel welcome

The Brussels Convention Bureau reckons that Brussels’ continued strength as a meetings destination is not only due to the advantages of the European institutions, its central position and ease of access, Brussels has invested consistently in convention infrastructure, facilities and capacity and all actors in the sector have made great efforts to ensure that event organizers and international visitors feel welcome in the city.

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