Are you planning meetings or conferences for 2017? Consider Lisbon as a venue ;-)

Lisbon tops the list of most popular city for business meetings & conferences

Back in th 90’ies I had my first visit to Portugal. I went to Algarve for an International Music Conference for EMI executives from all over the world. I heard a lot of fantastic music, met a lot of fantastic people and got the rights to a few fantastic music projects. But really hated the place. There were nothing wrong with the hotels, the various venues or the restaurants. I just missed the charming settings from Cannes, Copenhagen, Brighton, Strasbourg and some of the other conference cities I’ve been to before.

A few years later I returned to Portugal for another Music Conference. The international album release of Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty. This time in Lisbon! And this time a completely different experience – it was around EXPO when the whole world was in town. So both our hotels and restaurants were so, so and so.  What Algarve lacked of charm and coziness Lisbon had plenty of. I Loved the place!

With all the international hotels every where, the new fantastic restaurants that opens every mont – several of them in the Michelin Category – I can’t imagine how fantastic it must be to attend conferences in Lisbon. Especially after the insights we have after living here the last years: We have the most stunning beaches just across the corner, we have 25 international golf courses within an hours drive from down town, we are surrounded by nature and the airport is almost reaching international standards. 

So it was not a surprise to see Lisbon climbing the chart of the best MICE Cities in the world.

Thomas

    [caption id="attachment_750" align="aligncenter" width="718"] A few month ago Lisbon hosted on of the biggest European conferences – The WebSummit. MEO Arena in EXPO was one of the venues – next year the number attendants will increase from 50,000 to 80,000. We mention this in case someone out there wonder about Lisbon’s capacity.[/caption]  

It’s attractive, it’s cosmopolitan, it’s friendly, it’s well connected in terms of flights, it represents value for money, and it’s growing in popularity – what’s not to like about Lisbon as a MICE destination? These attributes have not gone unnoticed by the industry: in 2014 Portugal’s capital hosted 109 congresses and conventions and was ranked 12th as a venue by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA). Last year saw it host 145 congresses and meetings and move up three places to ninth in the ICCA city ranking, putting it ahead of Copenhagen, Prague, Amsterdam and Brussels. Read CMW business & conference profile here.

 

The most popular MICE destinations according to ICCA

[caption id="attachment_17463" align="aligncenter" width="600"] 2 of our favorite European cities ousted Prague and Amsterdam from ICCA’s top 10: Lisbon (the biggest winner in the Top 20 in absolute numbers) & Copenhagen.[/caption]  

Just not to offend people that love Algarve 🙂

There is nothing wrong with Algarve. We have been there a couple of times after our first visits… it’s just not our favorite place. In our opinion there are so many other interesting beaches to go to. Like so many other things – tthis is a matter of taste.

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