The popularity of Prague as a congress destination increases every year. Especially 2012 was extraordinarily successful year for Prague according to the statistics.
The Czech Statistical Office, collecting data from collective accommodation establishments, states the total of 4,264 meetings organized in the Czech capital last year (i.e. increase by 234 meetings compared to 2011), which hosted 671,812 participants, that means increase by 16.4% compared to 2011.
The increasing trend is also confirmed by statistics that Prague Convention Bureau has collected for the third consecutive year from its members.
A longer-range insight also shows very positive trend – the CSO statistics from the last 4 years show a 20% increase of the meetings in 2012 compared to 2009. During this period, the number of the participants increased by almost 40% from 484,807 to 671,812. In 2012, the most meetings (1,282) were held from April to June.
According to the statistics of Prague Convention Bureau, most events held in Prague have been corporate conferences/meetings, followed by association conferences/congresses; mostly in the fields of pharmacy, IT and telecommunication, economy and medical sciences. The average length of meeting shorted from 2.29 days in 2011 to 2.06 days in 2012. As in the previous year, one-day meetings dominated in 2012, and this fact relates to the significant 61% increase of number of the meetings without accommodation.
It is also evident that smaller meetings become more significant. As in 2011, meetings for 50-149 participants were the most common type of events for PCB members in 2012. Number of these meetings had increased by 10%. As in 2011, the second most frequent type of meetings in 2012 was for 10-49 participants. Unlike in 2011, the number of meetings with international participants (i.e. with the number of international participants higher than 20%) increased by 61% last year. Direct clients still dominate over intermediate agencies – besides the Czech Republic, they come mostly from the United Kingdom, USA, Germany, France and Belgium.
Hotel remained the most frequent venue used last year. The second position, unlike in 2011, belongs to the category of other venues, which includes all facilities except those in the categories of hotels and congress centers, most often universities.
The above statistic data confirm that Prague becomes more and more popular destination for organizing any type of event. We can expect positive trend in increasing number of both meetings and participants as well in the upcoming years.
