Strong convention year for Berlin: 2023 builds on previous successes
- Number of event guests increases by 29 per cent
- More than 7.6 million participants attended over 70,000 business events in Berlin in 2023
- Every fifth one comes from a foreign country
- A strong start to 2024 too
Berlin, 25 July 2024 In 2023, Berlin hosted more than 70,000 business events and almost eight million participants from all over the world. The market for conferences, meetings and conventions therefore remains an important economic factor for the capital: The sector generated a total of 1.4 billion euros (2022: 1.1 billion euros). This was indicated by the event and convention statistics of visitBerlin’s Berlin Convention Office which were released today.
“With these figures, Berlin's convention business is returning to success”, says Burkhard Kieker, spokesman for the visitBerlin management. “The coronavirus dent has been completely ironed out. The capital city's convention industry is once again playing in the premier league. Berlin is defying the current geopolitical challenges. Virtual conferences are no longer a problem.”
Important economic factor for the capital city
The number of business events increased by 30 per cent (2022: 54,397); the number of participants also rose sharply by 29 per cent (2022: 5.9 million). The proportion of international guests at business events was 22.1 per cent, well above the German average of 9.1 per cent.
This means that 70,535 business events – i.e. conventions, conferences, seminars, exhibitions, presentations and social events with a professional connection – took place in Berlin in 2023 with 7.64 million participants. On top of this, there were 21,788 other events in the spheres of sport, culture and festivities (including anniversaries, weddings and parties) that were attended by some 2.37 million guests. In total, ten million participants attended 92,323 events in Berlin in the year 2023.
The Berlin Senate’s Restart-Programme played a major role in the successful restart of Berlin's convention business after the pandemic. This programme includes the Berlin Congress Fund, under which the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises provides financial support to event organisers. The ‘MICE Acquisition Task Force’, which actively acquires new congresses and events for Berlin, is also based at visitBerlin.
The positive trend carries on in 2024
2024 holds the promise of being another successful year: Berlin's event business is already benefiting from high-calibre major events, including medical conventions such as the ESMO Breast Cancer and the World Health Summit, the world's leading event for software and technology experts ‘We are Developers World’ and, of course, the ‘IFA’, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. In addition, the European Football Championships boosted Berlin's international appeal and generated a priceless wave of advertising.
Berlin is seeing an upswing in environmental, sustainability and energy events
The event and convention statistics also show that the sectors driving growth in the event business are becoming progressively more diverse. In addition to conventions and conferences from the medical/healthcare sector, events organised by companies and associations from the environment/sustainability/energy, politics/public institutions and finance/insurance sectors gravitated towards Berlin throughout 2023.
Events in Berlin are becoming increasingly international and sustainable
The proportion of international events has risen sharply to the tune of 15.7 per cent (2022: 4 per cent) and was well above the national figure of 4.7 per cent. The foreign organisers mainly hailed from the UK, the USA and Spain. In addition, event planners from Switzerland, France, Austria and Italy were showing a growing interest in Berlin as a conference and convention location in 2023..
At the same time, the drive to organise more sustainable meetings and events continues to gather pace: The most frequent requests from event venues are for waste avoidance measures and climate-friendly catering. Here, Berlin benefits from the fact that the issue of sustainability is more developed in the city's venues than the overall average in Germany. In Berlin, sustainability is not just seen as a trend, but as an integral part of the event industry: In times of climate crisis and increasingly scarce raw materials, CO2 footprint and resource consumption are important indicators for the success of an event in terms of sustainability.
Top positions for Berlin and Germany in the international conference and business travel market
The fact that Berlin is becoming more and more popular is also confirmed by the latest Report 2024 from the international event platform Cvent. By comparison with the previous year, the convention metropolis moved up two places and is now one of the four most popular conference metropolises in Europe. At the same time, the international market for business travel is also growing and Germany has confirmed its position as the number 1 business travel destination in the international arena. Of the 117 million international business trips taken worldwide in 2023, 13.5 million were to Germany. This equates to a market share of no less than twelve per cent.
As part of the TourismusHub, a series of online events organised by visitBerlin, Marco Oelschlegel, Director of Conventions, will present the results of the event and convention statistics to visitBerlin ‘s partners on 12 September.
