Prague Improved its Position in International Meeting Destinations Competition, Despite Crisis
Slovenian Kongres magazine was evaluating international meeting destinations based on a set of 75 various criteria, this year for the tenth time already. Prague received 4.68 points out of 5 possible this year, thus defending its first place in the region of the so-called New Europe. It ranked fourth in the overall ranking of XL destinations with capacities for more than 2,000 delegates.
This year's ranking, officially called Meetologue, evaluated a total of 118 destinations based on a set of criteria that focus on facilities for international meetings and conferences (such as meeting capacities, number, capacity and quality of accommodation facilities, or newly also number of virtual studios and average speed of internet connection), as well as transportation connections, security, tourist infrastructure, cultural and natural factors, or marketing and promotion activities of the destination. The evaluation of individual destinations is always carried out by carefully selected evaluators with more than 15 years of experience in the sector, who subsequently undergo comprehensive training and assessment of whether there is no conflict of interest on their part when evaluating a destination.
The individual destinations are then classified into respective categories based on the maximum number of delegates they are able to host in one place at a time: XL destinations (with a capacity of more than 2,000 delegates), L destinations (with a capacity of up to 2,000 delegates), M destinations (with a capacity of up to 1,200 delegates) and the smallest S destinations (with a capacity of up to 500 delegates). A special category is the region of so-called New Europe, these are the destinations of predominantly eastern Europe, which were once situated behind the Iron Curtain and to which the evaluators of the Kongres magazine also add less-known or emerging destinations in the meetings industry.
Prague, with its maximum capacity of 2,400 delegates (in the banquet set-up), belongs, along with 35 other destinations, to the highest - the XL destinations category - where it ranked fourth with 4.68 points. Compared to the last year's ranking, the Czech capital has improved its performance mainly in the evaluation of general and transport infrastructure, natural and cultural factors, or the facilities for organizing congresses and conferences. Vienna dominates the XL destinations ranking this year with 4.75 points, followed by Copenhagen and Zurich, sharing second place with a 4.73 point rating, and Munich with 4.71 points.
Tallinn (Estonia) and Dubrovnik (Croatia) ranked top in the smaller cities category, and Slovenian Bahinj dominates the category of the smallest meeting destinations.
"I am pleased that since 2017 the evaluation of the meeting Prague has been improving every year. The increasing rating of the Czech capital is mainly a result of the long-term improving meetings infrastructure and the varied offer of MICE industry suppliers, supported by an interest in sustainable meetings. At the same time, we have seen another shift in the marketing approach, where content marketing and communication on social networks in particular have met with a positive evaluation, which in particular I perceive as a great appreciation of the work of the Prague Convention Bureau team and also of all its local partners who participate in creating a positive image of Prague as an ideal meeting destination," adds Roman Muška, Director of the Prague Convention Bureau.
Prague has also been successfully defending its first position in the New Europe category for several years, with a big lead over other destinations: Athens (4.53 points) at the second and Budapest (4.52 points) at the third place.
Official award ceremony for the top-rated destinations will take place at the Conventa Trade Show 2022 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 23rd to 24th February 2022 in hybrid form.
A complete overview of results across all categories can be found here.
An overview of the top 10 XL destinations, including their rating, is available on this link.
The complete ranking of the TOP 10 destinations of New Europe can be found here.
A detailed evaluation of Prague is available by clicking here.