Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC)
and VisitAberdeen say that an increased number of conferences brought
to the North East Scotland city have helped propel it up two
industry ranking tables.
The Union of International
Associations’ (UIA) recently released its 2011 data, shows Aberdeen
rising from ninth position in the UK in 2010 to fifth equal (with
Newcastle and Cambridge).
The UIA is a non-profit
non-governmental organisation researching, under UN mandate, the global
civil society and publishing information on international organisations
and international meetings.
The UIA data criteria is based on
international meetings and conferences of more than 300 delegates and
the statistics are based on information statistically collected by the
UIA, according to strict criteria maintained over the past 63 years.
Aberdeen also made the top 10 UK cities list in the latest International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) data.
The
ICCA Data criteria differs from the UIA, as it is based on any meeting
in excess of 50 delegates, held over two or more days which rotates
between a minimum of three countries.
Aberdeen came in with ICCA at
ninth place, equal with Leeds. The ICCA criteria mean that several of
the major international conferences held at AECC, such as Offshore
Europe and All-Energy, which are held solely held in Aberdeen, are not
counted.
Brian Horsburgh, AECC’s Managing Director, said: “These
results clearly show that we are attracting a progressively increasing
number of international conferences to Aberdeen, which is excellent news
for the local economy.”
Steve Harris, CEO of the new marketing
organisation, VisitAberdeen, which was formally launched this week, said:
“This news is a testament to the hard work put in by AECC and people
throughout the city in trying to bring significant conferences here. It
demonstrates that we can compete on a world stage and are doing so,
every more effectively. Aberdeen has so much to offer and the world is
recognising it.”
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