Recently the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) released the international association meetings market annual report for the year 2013. The 72 international association meetings that were held in Shanghai in 2013 totals to 8 more than that of 2012, ranking Shanghai as number 29 in the world, bringing the city 6 ranks higher than its previous 2012 ranking.
Besides Shanghai, other Chinese cities and regions that made the rankings included: Beijing (105 meetings), Hong Kong (89 meetings), Nanjing (17 meetings), Hangzhou (17 meetings), Macao (16 meetings), Chengdu (11 meetings), Guangzhou (11 meetings), Wuhan (11 meetings), Xi’an(10 meetings), Suzhou (7 meetings), Shenzhen (7 meetings), Taichung (7 meetings), Tianjin (6 meetings), Hefei (5 meetings), and Tainan (5 meetings).

Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the ICCA organization was founded in 1963. ICCA is the most renowned convention organization globally, with members from over 1000 companies and agencies, spanning 90 countries and regions all over the world. Among these, more than 40 members are from Mainland China, making it the country with the largest amount of members in the Asia-Pacific region.

Through more than 50 years of development, ICCA has established a complete database of international association meetings. ICCA has set the definition of international meetings. An international association meeting is such one that roates at least three different countries on a regular basis with an attendance of 50 or more people per meeting. This has become the world’s most widely accepted and most authoritative criteria for an international meeting. Major tourist cities from around the world closely follow the rankings released annually by ICCA, as these rankings are viewed as a measurement of a tourist city’s infrastructure, reception capacity, service standards, as well as important indicators of a city’s overall technological and cultural development capabilities.