Tirol’s congress business is booming

The Austrian Convention Bureau (ACB) and Austrian National Tourist Board have recently published the results of the Meeting Industry Report Austria (mira) for the ninth year in succession. A report that shows considerable growth for Tirol in 2017: the number of events in the congress and conference sector has risen by 47.8 percent compared to 2016.

Strong increase in corporate meeting segment

Weighed against the rest of the country, Tirol has experienced above-average developments in the congress and conference business sector in 2017. Growth of 45.8 percent in the congress sector and 69.5 percent in the corporate meeting segment represents an overall increase of 47.8 percent over the previous year, with 1,998 events. Austria-wide, this figure has increased by 11.9 per cent to 21,641.

The increase is also reflected in the amount of guests travelling to the province: the number of congress attendees in Tirol increased by 51.3 percent in 2017 to 100,834. The number of overnight stays for conference participants increased by 46.4 per cent to 482,579, putting the province in second place after Vienna in the Austrian conference league table.
Compared to the previous year, Tirol was able to double its number of corporate meeting participants to 57,623.

The congress and conference location of Tirol continues to enjoy increasing popularity and is therefore experiencing significant growth

Veronika Handl, Head of Convention Bureau Tirol

More congresses than ever before

Conference business generated almost 3.5 million overnight stays throughout Austria, an increase of 5.7 percent compared to 2016. This is equivalent to 2.4 percent of the total number of tourist arrivals in Austria. More than 2.5 million overnight stays were created by congresses alone – with more congresses taking place now than ever before.

International congresses record on average twice as many participants (277) as national (127). In the provincial capitals, every ninth night guest came from the congress and conference industry. November is the strongest congress month, with two-thirds of all congresses taking place in spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November), thus reviving months with an otherwise less buoyant turnover.

Business and politics have the leading edge

The largest proportion of congresses and conferences are based on the topics of “Business & Politics”. This is closely followed by “Human Medicine” and “Humanities”, as well as “Technology & IT”.