As we kick off a new year and a new decade, the most popular meeting cities, according to CWT M&E, the global meetings and events division of CWT, consists of London as number one.
Following London as the most popular meeting cities are Frankfurt, number two; Paris, number three; Berlin, number four; Barcelona, number five; Milan, number six; Cologne, number seven; Stockholm, number eight; Amsterdam, number nine; and Vienna, number ten.
“London and the UK continue to be strong for meetings and events,” said Ian Cummings, vice president, EMEA, CWT Meetings and Events, in a statement. “The uncertainty over Brexit, and the resulting devaluation of the pound, has made the UK an even more attractive destination.”
Apart from London, Manchester also made a shorter list of destinations on the rise in the region, buoyed by significant developments, including a new 20,000-capacity arena.
Other up-and-coming cities in 2020 include Porto in Portugal, Seville in Spain, the Italian city of Rome, and the French city of Nice. These destinations typically offer better values than the top-tier cities, along with an increasing number of competitive hotels and venues that can host meetings and events of varying sizes.
In addition, nowhere is sustainability having more of an impact on business than in Europe. It’s encoded into law as in France with its société à mission, a new corporate structure for companies with a social and environmental mission beyond profits, that is expected to influence suppliers they work with. It’s in investments in electric cars by European car manufacturers, creating opportunities for new product launches. It’s in working towards becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral city as the Danish capital of Copenhagen is doing with 70% of its hotel rooms now holding official eco-certification. Sustainability is a key driver for meetings and events in EMEA in 2020 and beyond.
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