Home NEWS Messe Wien Set To Exceed 2019’s Succesful Business Year In 2020

Messe Wien Set To Exceed 2019’s Succesful Business Year In 2020

Jan 31, 2020

2020 will be an excellent congress year

Alongside Reed Exhibitions’ own fairs and shows, third-party events make up the second key business pillar of the Messe Wien facility. Reed Exhibitions, exclusive operators of Messe Wien, announced that in 2019 a total of 68 external events attracting a total of 229,275 were staged at the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center. The event typology ranges from congresses, conferences and meetings to third-party fairs and corporate events. When Reed Exhibitions’ own fairs are included, last year saw almost 700,000 visitors and participants walk through the doors at Messe Wien.

Martina Candillo

Director of Congresses & Events

“Congresses, conferences and corporate events form the most important segment in the guest events business field”, explained Martina Candillo, Director of Congresses & Events at Reed Exhibitions Messe Wien. “In contrast to other venues, rather than focusing on maximising the number of events, we emphasise the respective scale and market significance of each event. As is often the case – less is more.” She provided hard facts to justify these claims: “Of the 21 congresses hosted, eleven were international-scale events; and of the eleven corporate events, four of them were international ones.” The highlights of 2019 were the annual ESHRE congress attracting 12,000 participants, the International Liver Congress with 8,500 people in attendance, and KAO Salon Division Global Zoom Event which brought in more than 3,000 guests.

Significant commercial hub

In 2019, not including any other events, congresses and corporate gatherings at Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center alone accounted for 228,000 overnight stays, contributing to the overall knock-on profitability of Vienna’s meetings industry. The international congresses generated 191,000 local overnight stays; domestic congresses accounted for 10,000. As regards corporate events, international gatherings generated 17,000 stays and domestic meetings produced 10,000 overnight stays. According to the Vienna meetings industry’s statistics for 2018, this contributed around 143 million Euros to Austria’s GDP total. In terms of boosting demand for accommodation and contributing to GDP, international congresses are the main source of profit. Based on available statistics, the figures for 2019 only becoming available this March, Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center contributed 11% of the profit made by the Vienna meetings industry overall.

Since no fewer than 13 international congresses have been scheduled for 2020, Messe Wien’s 2020 event business result can be expected to top the 2019 figure. Scheduled events include two of the largest scientific congresses in Europe: The annual congress of the European Respiratory Society with approximately 19,000 participants, and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual congress – attracting around 18,000. Four additional congresses are expected to bring another 5000 participants to Vienna. Martina Candillo was delighted to report: “It’s particularly pleasing to note that all six congresses are now regular clients.”