[pullquote]The last time ICCA met in the US was in 1987 in Albuquerque, NM. Therefore by 2019 it will be 32 years since an ICCA Congress came to the US[/pullquote]. ICCA President Nina Freysen-Pretorius announced at the 54th ICCA General Assembly in Buenos Aires that the city of Houston will host ICCA’s 2019 Congress.
“Never has a bidding city received so much support from members in other countries within their region, and this, coupled with this bid’s technical excellence and creativity, meant that the Board had no hesitation in making this decision”, stated Nina Freysen-Pretorius.
Numerous ICCA members and destinations in Mexico and Canada wrote letters of support, as well as other US destinations, demonstrating that the whole region was strongly behind Houston’s latest campaign to represent the North American region in ICCA’s global rotation cycle.
Daniel Palomo from Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, who is also North American representative on the ICCA Board of Directors, reacted to the news: “This is the fourth time Houston has bid to host ICCA’s global community, so I’m really delighted that our commitment has been recognised, and that we finally have the opportunity to turn our creative ideas into reality. We are determined to generate real business opportunities not just in our own city but for our colleagues across the region, and to introduce delegates to the many reasons why Houston is such a successful meetings destination, as well as giving them a warm Texas welcome!”
The ICCA Congess is taking place 1-4 November in Buenos Aires, Argentina with 766 delegates from 66 countries; a record number for any ICCA Congress in the Americas. After this year’s Congress in Buenos Aires, ICCA will move to Sarawak, Malaysia in 2016, Prague in 2017, and Dubai in 2018.
