Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) have forged a strategic partnership to cooperate with the World Tourism Organization to store information on conferences and meetings worldwide.

MPI and ICCA join Reed Travel Exhibitions, one of the key players in the meetings industry exhibition business, in joining WTO.

The project was announced by the heads of the two organisations, MPI Chairman Hugh Lee, MPI Chairwoman-Elect Christine Duffy and ICCA President Christian Mutschlechner who also runs the Vienna Convention Bureau.

Both associations have now joined the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), within which they will create a new framework for capturing the overall economic effects of the international meetings industry.

This will be based on the WTO’s Tourism  Satellite Account methodology. Currently there are only two sources of global conference statistics worldwide, the ICCA and the Union of International Associations. Neither collect information on corporate meetings or focus on economic analysis.

The database currently being developed by the ICCA and MPI will include information not just on national and international conferences but also on corporate meetings and incentives.