Montreal a favourite location for international conferences in 2017

Montreal hosted more international conferences than any other city in the Americas in 2017, according to Tourisme Montréal and the Palais des congrès de Montréal, citing data from the Union of International Associations.

The city played host to 149 international conferences in 2017 — 61 per cent of all international conferences held in Canada during the year.

That’s more than twice as many international conferences as were held in Washington D.C., which ranked second in the Americas with 62.

Montreal’s 2017 numbers beat its previous record of 108 international conferences.

“This is good news for Montreal as well as for everyone who works to host and organize these events,” said Andrée-Anne Pelletier, a spokesperson for Tourisme Montréal.

She said the tourism agency has been working with partners like the Palais des congrès to bid for international conferences as well as other events.

“We know business tourism is more profitable in terms of impact than leisure tourism,” Pelletier said.

Business travellers account for one-quarter of visitors to Montreal and 40 per cent of tourism spending, Yves Lalumière, the president and CEO of Tourisme Montréal, said in a May interview.

“Business travellers spend an average of $400 per day, so it is important for the city, it’s important for the restaurants, for the art galleries,” Lalumière said.

The only other Canadian city in the top five is Toronto, which played host to 27 international conferences.

On a worldwide basis, Montreal ranked 15th. Singapore was first, playing host to 802 international meetings. Half of the Top 10 cities are in Asia, the other half in Europe. The UIA tracks meetings of 37,500 active international organizations, and those groups held 10,786 of them in 2017, it said.