Estonia, Financial Services, Forum, Good for Business, Tourism

In the recently published list of international conference destinations Estonia has climbed to place 45 among more than 200 countries, the Estonian Convention Bureau (ECB) said.

In the rankings of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) published last week, Tartu occupies 115th place among 2,337 cities, 61 places higher than last year. In two years, the second largest city of Estonia has advanced 127 notches. The number of international conferences held in Tartu more than doubled year over year, first and foremost as a result of conferences organized by universities and other research institutions.

Tallinn is in place 55 on the same list.

"According to statistics, several of the conferences that took place in Estonia were connected with the field of information technology. Besides we can see many events in Estonia that are related to other fields of technology, as well as agriculture, education, medicine and natural science," the manager of ECB, Kadri Karu, said.

"International statistics shows that each conference delegate brings on the average 1,200 euros to the country. More than 60,000 people took part in the conferences held here, more than half of whom were from foreign countries. Hence we can say that conference tourists brought approximately 40 million euros here," Karu said.

In all 73 specialist conferences of international organizations were held in Estonia in 2015. A conference tourist spends a little more than three nights in Estonia on the average and spends approximately 300 euros on entertainment and shopping aside from the expenditure on accommodation, transport, and participation fees.

More than 80% of the international conferences held in Estonia last year were held in Tallinn, with Tartu and Parnu in places two and three.