German events market is becoming larger
Germany's events industry surged in 2024 with rising in-person attendance, internationalisation, and sustainability, reaching 91% of pre-pandemic business travel levels.
FRANKFURT – The German National Tourist Board (GNTB), the GCB German Convention Bureau and the EVVC European Association of Event Centres present the results of the 'Meeting & EventBarometer 2024/2025″. The key figures for the German events market in 2024 confirm the upward trend of recent years with significantly rising attendee numbers, especially for in-person events, as well as increasing internationalisation.
Development of Business Travel in German Incoming Tourism
According to analyses by IPK International carried out on behalf of the GNTB and GCB in 2024, the number of international business trips from Europe to Germany increased by 7.7 percent year-on-year from 11.1 million to 11.9 million. Including overseas markets, the business travel segment grew by 8.1 percent to 14.65 million trips to Germany. In 2024, Germany remains by far the number one business travel destination for Europeans and 20 percent of trips from Europe to Germany were business trips.
Petra Hedorfer, chairwoman of the GNTB's executive board: 'With 14.65 million international business trips to Germany in 2024, the business travel segment continues to recover post-Covid, reaching 91 per cent of the 2019 level. Within the market for business trips from Europe to Germany, all segments were on the rise in 2024. Compared to classic business trips, the number of MICE trips rose above average by 13 percent to 7.1 million, constituting a market share of 60 percent. Within the MICE-related travel segment, congresses/conferences remain the strongest segment with an increase of eleven percent and a 39 percent share of the business travel market. However, those positive 2024 figures should not obscure the fact that the overall conditions for the business travel market have become significantly more difficult since the start of 2025. As escalating trade conflicts are dampening growth expectations globally, business travel might be impacted. This makes it all the more important to focus on internationalisation and the digital transformation to ensure that Germany remains a connected and competitive player and leading business travel destination in the long term.'
German Events Become Bigger, With More International Attendees
Matthias Schultze, Managing Director of the GCB German Convention Bureau, puts the 2024 business travel figures in the context of the latest Meeting & EventBarometer, which covers the entire event market, including business and leisure events: 'According to IPK International, Germany leads globally as the most visited destination for MICE trips. In 2024, ten percent of MICE trips worldwide led to Germany. This equals 8.9 million trips in absolute figures and constitutes year-on-year growth of more than 15 percent, reaching almost 98 percent of the 2019 level. This positive market development is also reflected in our new Meeting & EventBarometer: While the overall number of events taking place last year in Germany has decreased slightly in comparison to 2023, they were on average bigger with respect to attendee figures and also more international.'
Looking at attendee numbers specifically reveals the upward trend: Attending events in-person – either in-person only events or the in-person attendance option of hybrid events – is booming, with a total of 378 million attendees choosing to attend events in-person last year. This corresponds to growth of 21.5 percent (2023: 310.8 million) and takes overall attendee numbers to almost 90 percent of the 2019 level. It is worth noting that the number of attendees increased across all types of venues, including dedicated event centres, conference hotels and other venues such as museums or historic spaces.
Growth in international attendees contributes to the German events market's positive development: For in-person events, the share of attendees from abroad increased from 6.2 percent in 2023 to an average of 9.5 percent in 2024, which in absolute numbers equals 93 percent of international attendance in 2019. The real volume of in-person events in 2024 was 2.02 million, corresponding to 69.9 percent of the 2019 level. Compared to 2023, this constitutes a slight decline in volume of six percent, which – combined with the increase in attendee numbers including from abroad – suggests that events are becoming larger as well as more international overall.
Business Events Drive Internationalisation
German business events in particular attract international guests: At 11.1 percent, the share of international attendees is higher in this segment than in all types of events overall. This corresponds to 12.7 million people travelling to Germany from abroad to attend business events in 2024, constituting an increase of two percentage points compared to 2023.
At just under 50 percent, companies are the most important organiser group of business events. In terms of the origin, German event organisers are a solid business base for business event venue providers: 90.9 percent of all organisations come from Germany. At the same time, there is a trend towards more international customers as their share has risen from 6.3 percent to 9.9 per cent compared to 2023. Internationally, Germany's direct neighbours are particularly strong source markets, with the USA, UK and China also playing a role.
Sustainability as Standard – AI as Part of Everyday Working Life
Sustainability has become a key USP in the business of events: Between 2011 and 2024, the share of event space suppliers that have implemented a sustainability standard or sustainability reporting more than doubled from 27 percent to 60 percent. Another 23 percent are planning to implement one. On the customer side, almost 80 percent of event organisers prefer venues with a sustainability standard in place.
'Event and congress centres as well as arenas and special event venues have massively increased their commitment to sustainability, which is being well received by customers and attendees,' says René Tumler, Managing Director of the EVVC. 'Combined with their advancing digitalisation, venues are thus ideally positioned to future-proof their operations for our transformative times that require technology and sustainability efforts to work in tandem.'
While it has taken more than a decade for sustainability to become a standard for the selection of event spaces, the integration of AI into the day-to-day operations of business events stakeholders seems to be happening much faster: 78 percent of event organisers and 46 percent of venues say they use AI tools, with chatbots taking the top spot in both cases. AI-supported simultaneous translations as well as feedback and KPI analyses follow in second and third place on the organiser side, while marketing applications for image and text generation are particularly popular with venue suppliers.
Positive Growth Outlook for 2025
Looking ahead, both venues and event organisers are confident about the coming months: 85 percent of organisers expect the event planning situation to be (very) good and 62 percent of venues rate the booking situation for the coming months as (very) good. Both groups see potential for growth, particularly for in-person only events. The German organisers surveyed also expect the growth in international attendees to continue with more event attendees from European countries.
All types of events have been operating in a complex environment for several years now and are impacted by a wide range of factors. Digitalisation is changing people's behaviour and attendees' expectations of events are now influenced by both the on-demand culture and mobile working. In this context, the results of the Meeting & EventBarometer 2024/2025 show the continued importance of events. Above all, the growth in in-person attendance indicates that engaging with others face-to-face when discussing relevant issues as well as the actual personal experience of events is more crucial than ever.
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