Figures from Lausanne Tourism & Convention Bureau reveal a 24% increase in the number of meetings and events being held in the city’s three key conference-hotels and congress centres between 2015 and 2016, alongside a 10% rise in the number of delegates.
This positive upward trend is reflected in a significant rise of 5.6% in the number of business and leisure visitors to Lausanne between 2015 and 2016, the number of overnight stays in the city has also increased by 6.2%. The top five countries in terms of growth in overnight stays in Lausanne include France 5.3%, Germany 5.2%, USA 6.5%, Italy 2.8% and the UK 5.4%.
The number of visitors to Lausanne, from outside Switzerland, continues to show substantial growth, with a total increase of 6.9%, including France 5.8%, Germany 4.9%, USA 10.8%, Italy 2.3% and the UK 3.7%.
The recently released International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) 2016 Statistics Report supports this trend, with the number of meeting participants visiting Lausanne increasing by 22% between 2015 and 2016. There are now more than 70 international sport and other industry associations headquartered in Lausanne, making the city one of the primary centres for international association headquarters in Europe.
Olivier Mathieu, Congress and Meetings Manager at Lausanne Tourism & Convention Bureau, says: “As Lausanne and Switzerland experience positive economic growth, so our appeal to international businesses and associations, as an excellent central base to bring conference and meeting delegates from all over the world, is growing. French-speaking Switzerland, of which Lausanne is part, is now in the top 10 most prosperous European regions1.”
