Poland ranked 16th worldwide, while Warsaw placed 19th in the ICCA Global Government Meetings Intelligence Report 2025. The new report by the International Congress and Convention Association provides an overview of the scale of international governmental and intergovernmental meetings and the importance of this segment to the global meetings industry. Poland’s strong result also provides an opportunity to mobilise ahead of the next edition of the ranking, as ICCA has already begun collecting data for 2026.
For the first time, the International Congress and Convention Association has examined international governmental and intergovernmental meetings on such a broad scale. The Global Government Meetings Intelligence Report 2025 covers 2,324 events held across 118 countries and territories and 304 cities. ICCA estimates their direct economic impact at approximately USD 2.5 billion annually.
This ranking should be distinguished from ICCA’s well-established annual ranking of international association congresses and conferences. This time, the analysis focuses on meetings organised by international and regional intergovernmental organisations and attended by, among others, ministers, diplomats, public administration representatives and experts acting in an official capacity.
These events are often smaller in terms of delegate numbers than major association congresses, yet their significance for destinations can be considerable. They are linked to international cooperation, decision-making processes and issues of global importance – from the economy and trade to climate, health, security, technology, education and human rights. At the same time, they require appropriate organisational infrastructure, security arrangements, protocol services and experience in handling high-level delegations.
Europe remains the global centre for government meetings
Half of all events included in the report took place in Europe. ICCA identified 1,163 meetings on the continent, representing 50% of the global market. Asia ranked second with 505 events and a 21.7% share.
Europe’s strong position is closely linked to the presence of major international organisations. As a result, the leading cities in the global ranking include Geneva, Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen and Strasbourg.
At country level, Switzerland ranked first with 237 meetings, followed by France with 166, Belgium with 144, Denmark with 122 and Austria with 121.
Poland in the global TOP 20
Against this background, Poland’s result is particularly notable. According to ICCA’s final consolidated ranking, 46 meetings meeting the report’s criteria took place in Poland in 2025. This placed the country 16th worldwide, with a 2% share of the global number of events.
Poland therefore ranked among the world’s 20 leading destinations in this segment, ahead of, among others, China, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates in the final consolidated ranking.
Warsaw also achieved a strong result. The Polish capital was ranked 19th worldwide with 26 meetings. It therefore entered the global TOP 20 alongside cities such as Seoul, Washington, London, Brasília and Buenos Aires.
The results confirm that Poland is visible not only on the global market for association congresses and conferences, but also as a host destination for events connected with international institutional cooperation.
We also recommend: Poland moves up in the ICCA 2025 ranking of association congresses and conferences.
The next ranking is already taking shape
The publication of the 2025 results is not only an opportunity to review the past year. ICCA has already begun collecting data for the Governmental Meetings Ranking 2026, making the coming weeks particularly important for Poland’s meetings industry.
Eligible events are those organised by international or regional intergovernmental organisations. Importantly, this ranking has no minimum delegate requirement and no requirement for the event to rotate between countries.
The deadline for submitting data is 15 October 2026.
Poland Convention Bureau of the Polish Tourism Organisation encourages Polish ICCA members, regional and city convention bureaux, congress centres, conference venues, PCOs, universities and other meetings industry partners to review their calendars of events taking place in Poland in 2026.
It is also worth considering meetings which, because of their scale, may not previously have been regarded as relevant to international industry statistics. In ICCA’s governmental meetings ranking, the key factors are primarily the status of the organiser and the nature of the event, rather than the number of delegates.
The completeness of the data has a direct bearing on Poland’s position. The more qualifying events are correctly identified and included in the ICCA database, the more accurately the next ranking will reflect the actual scale of international meetings taking place in Poland.
“Poland’s 16th place and Warsaw’s presence in the global TOP 20 provide a very good starting point. We should now work together to ensure that the 2026 ranking reflects even more fully Poland’s position as a host destination for international governmental and intergovernmental meetings,” said Aneta Książek, Director of the Poland Convention Bureau at the Polish Tourism Organisation.
More information:
- ICCA, Global Government Meetings Intelligence Report 2025
- ICCA, Submit Your Data for 2026 Governmental Meetings Ranking
Editorial note: When reviewing the report, differences can be observed between some of the rankings presented in the main chapters and the tables included in the final appendices. This applies, among others, to Poland. For this reason, when presenting the results, Poland Convention Bureau of the Polish Tourism Organisation refers to Appendix A and Appendix B – Combined Rankings, Consolidated Dataset, which constitute the final ranking based on the consolidated dataset. It is in this final dataset that Poland ranks 16th and Warsaw 19th worldwide. ICCA explains in its methodology that the final database combines several sources: submissions from ICCA members, data from the ICCA Research Desk and monitoring of intergovernmental organisation calendars. The information is subsequently verified and deduplicated before being included in the consolidated dataset.
