Berlin, 20 February 2012 After tourism reported new record results for last year, the German capital now also takes positive stock of the meeting and convention year 2011: 115,700 events took place last year (+2 percent). They were attended by 9.7 million participants; this corresponds to 7 percent more than in 2010. The number of room nights rose to 6.05 million (+9 percent). The convention industry hence generates more than a quarter of all hotel room nights in Berlin.

The upwards tendency is reflected in a particularly significant manner by the sales revenues: EUR 1.8 billion were generated last year by meeting and convention participants in Berlin; this corresponds to a 10 percent increase versus prior year. The meeting and convention industry secured 34,000 full-time jobs – a plus of 2,000 compared to 2010.

For visitBerlin CEO Burkhard Kieker the convention industry is an important pillar of Berlin’s business community: “We will continue to do our utmost to further strengthen the convention destination. The BER airport is an important stage on Berlin’s way towards a world metropolis in order to secure more international conventions for the German capital. New air connections will contribute towards turning Berlin into an even more successful meeting and convention venue. In order to be able to continue to grow, the number of possible event locations must likewise be increased. A new demand arises here.”

In 2011 the share of international congress participants amounted to 19 percent. The number of German guests rose to 81 percent (+1 percent). A particularly large number of meetings and conventions took place in Berlin for the pharmaceutical and commerce sectors, each accounting for 10 percent.

The statistics are based on data from Berlin convention hotels, centres and event locations. An independent market research company evaluates the results. All details are available for downloading on convention.visitBerlin.de.

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