Conferences scheduled to take place in the Middle East stood the best chance of taking place last year - even if it meant switching to virtual or hybrid - according to the 2021 ICCA Rankings Report.
The report
reveals that the year 2021 brought out a ‘show must go on’ mentality in the
industry.
After a
hiatus in 2020, ICCA Rankings have returned to the 2021 ICCA’s Destination
Performance Index (DPI). The DPI ranks destinations’ success in winning the
original bid, Covid-19 event policies, adaptability and technological
capabilities to convert on-site events into virtual or hybrid events – thereby
maintaining business continuation.
The ICCA
Ranking Report examined 8,000 meetings scheduled for the year 2021 and
categorises them based on how the meetings were impacted by the Covid-19
pandemic. The report also compares affected meetings in 2021 with ICCA’s
analysis of meetings in 2020.
Findings
from the report revealed that the market share of virtual and hybrid meetings
doubled in just one year. Business continuation also increased by 30 per cent while
business cancellation dropped from 61 per cent to 31 per cent.
The Middle
East had the highest business continuation rate of all regions (77 per cent),
followed by Latin America (72 per cent) and Asia (71 per cent). Of all regions,
Latin America demonstrated the most significant growth in business continuation
compared to 2020, with an increase of 35 per cent.
“Now that
the global meetings industry has had more time to adapt to the challenges of
the pandemic, we wanted to acknowledge and reward the effort of destinations to
not only keep these crucial meetings going but also to improve their business
operations,” said ICCA CEO Senthil Gopinath. “The investments that destinations
have made in new technologies, partnerships, and advocacy initiatives will
continue to drive our industry forward.”
Gopinath added: “This report delivers a more holistic representation of the
pandemic’s impact on association meetings globally. Moreover, it reveals strong
and definitive signs of progressive recovery for the industry.”
The full
2021 ICCA Ranking (Destination Performance Index [DPI]) is available to ICCA
members and complements ICCA’s online Destination Comparison Tool (DCT).
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
