Hyderabad's ranking to host meets up 46 spots

Hyderabad: Hyderabad ups it game in hosting international meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE), as it jumped 46 ranks across the world in just one year. 

According to a report published by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), Hyderabad ranked 193 in 2017 as against a ranking of 239 last year, across cities.

India ranks 24 in hosting events across countries. Last year, the city hosted more than 100 conferences and exhibitions at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) and HITEX (Hyderabad International Trade Exposition Limited) together, the biggest being the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES).

However, ICCA takes into account only international events which move from country to country or across continents. Barcelona claimed first place in the city rankings by holding 195 meetings in 2017 while the United States claimed first position country wise with 941 meetings. 

It doesn't consider the conferences hosted by corporate companies but only of associations recognised by international society. There were 14 such conferences held in Hyderabad in 2017 as against 11 in 2016. Even in the Asia Pacific region Hyderabad's ranking improved to 45 as against 54 the previous year. 

ICCA is a global community and knowledge hub for the international association meetings industry comprising of 1,100 member companies and organisations in almost 100 countries worldwide.

“Hyderabad’s ranking within country has remained at four, within Asia-Pacific it has jumped up. Hyderabad climbed up the ladder because the government has been very proactive in getting conferences to the city. The overall infrastructure of the city is pretty convenient to bring a conference here," said Gorav Arora resident manager, Novotel and HICC.

Because of these International conferences the foreign footfalls in the city increased last year by 76 per cent. Currently India's share in global MICE market is less than 1%, which needs to be doubled in the next few years for it to have a significant impact on our economy. To further boost the MICE activity Hitex will soon be constructing the largest multipurpose venue in its premises.