When you are presenting Madrid to a committee, a procurement department or an international association, figures help. This guide brings together the latest official data on meetings tourism in Madrid: rankings, meeting volumes, trade shows, connectivity and hotel supply. Every figure comes with its source and year, because data from different sources does not always measure the same thing.
Madrid in five figures
| Indicator | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Position in the 2025 ICCA ranking | 13th city in the world, 108 congresses | Hosteltur, based on ICCA data (May 2026) |
| Meetings held in 2024 | 54,784, with around 2.58 million participants | Madrid City Council |
| Economic impact of meetings tourism in 2024 | 5,674 million euros | Madrid City Council |
| Madrid-Barajas passengers in 2025 | 68,179,054 | Aena |
| Hotel beds | 76,354 in 306 hotels | Madrid Convention Bureau (2023 infographic) |
What does MICE mean and what does each source measure?
MICE stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions: meetings, incentive travel, conventions and congresses, and trade shows. It is tourism driven by professional reasons.
Before comparing, it is worth being clear about what each source counts:
- ICCA only counts international association congresses that rotate between countries and meet minimum attendance and frequency thresholds. It does not include company conventions or trade shows.
- The City Council and Madrid Convention Bureau count all meetings in the city, both corporate and association. That is why their figures are much higher.
- IFEMA reports on its own activity: trade shows, congresses and events at its venues.
- Aena measures passengers and flights, without distinguishing the purpose of travel.
Madrid in the ICCA ranking
In the 2025 ICCA ranking, published on 21 May 2026, Madrid is 13th in the world with 108 international association congresses. It hosted three more than the previous year, but dropped from 11th to 13th because other cities grew faster, according to Hosteltur. Lisbon topped the ranking and Barcelona reached the podium.
For you as an organiser, the practical reading is this: Madrid has the infrastructure and experience of major international congresses, and its main strength lies in the total volume of meetings, trade shows and corporate events, beyond the association congresses that ICCA measures.
How many meetings does Madrid host?
According to Madrid City Council, with data presented at the Madrid Convention Bureau general assembly in April 2025:
| Indicator (2024) | Figure | Change on 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Meetings | 54,784 | +2.3% |
| Participants | Around 2.58 million | +2.28% |
| Total economic impact | 5,674 million euros | +8.3% |
| Madrid's share of MICE spending in Spain | 23.5% | No data |
| Average stay of domestic MICE visitors | 2.8 days | +28.6% |
| Average stay of international MICE visitors | 4.5 days | +2.22% |
The international delegate's stay of 4.5 days is a useful figure for sizing hotel blocks and the social programme: many arrive the day before and stay an extra day.
Awards and recognition
In December 2025, at the 32nd World Travel Awards, Madrid was named the world's best meetings and conference destination for the seventh time, according to the City Council. It is the city with the most wins in that category since it was created in 2013, ahead of Las Vegas with six. At the European edition in October it was Europe's best meetings destination for the eighth year running.
The same press release notes that the AMEX GBT Forecast 2026 ranks Madrid as the second most attractive European destination for event organisers.
Madrid Convention Bureau in figures
Madrid Convention Bureau is the City Council department that promotes the city as a meetings destination and supports organisers.
| Indicator | Figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Member companies | 240 | City Council, December 2025 |
| Promotional activities in 2025 | 70 | City Council, December 2025 |
| Congresses it worked with in 2025 | 187, plus 31 corporate events | City Council, December 2025 |
| 2026 operating budget | +22.5% | MCB, March 2026 |
| Destination presentations | 5 in 2026, against 2 in 2025 | MCB, March 2026 |
Recent and upcoming major congresses
| Congress | Dates | Delegates | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| EBMT | 22-25 Mar 2026 | Around 6,000 | MCB |
| WindEurope 2026 | 21-23 Apr 2026 | 12,000 | MCB |
| ESMO Congress 2026 | 23-27 Oct 2026 | 37,000, with more than 65 million euros in direct spending | MCB |
| ESCRS Annual Congress | 15-19 Oct 2027 | 10,000 expected | MCB 2027 calendar |
| EAO Congress | 23-25 Sep 2027 | 5,000 expected | MCB 2027 calendar |
ESMO 2026 is the fourth time Madrid has hosted this oncology congress. The MCB calendar for 2027 had 50 congresses registered as at 15 October 2026, with 40,915 expected attendees in total; the figure will grow as venues are confirmed. You will find the dates in the Madrid trade show and congress calendar 2027.
IFEMA MADRID: Spain's largest trade show platform
IFEMA published its 2025 figures in May 2026:
| Indicator (2025) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Events | Around 700 |
| Trade shows | 75 (24 also in digital format) |
| Congresses | 14, with more than 63,000 professionals |
| Trade shows abroad | 4 |
| Major leisure events | 46 |
| Conventions and other events | 566 |
| Exhibiting companies | 27,670, more than 22% from abroad |
| Net space occupied | 1,371,990 m², +28% on 2023 |
| Revenue | 216.8 million euros |
| Share of the Spanish trade show market | 24% |
When presenting its 2026 calendar, IFEMA said that Madrid accounts for 36.1% of the 97 accredited international trade shows in Spain, against 24.7% for Barcelona and 14.4% for Valencia, according to its press release. For 2026 it scheduled 72 trade shows and 20 congresses.
The trade shows with the largest audiences
| Trade show | Edition | Figures | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| FITUR | 2026 | More than 255,000 visitors; more than 10,000 companies from 161 countries; 505 million euros of impact on the city | IFEMA |
| Fruit Attraction | 2025 | 2,485 exhibitors from 64 countries; more than 120,000 visitors | IFEMA |
| ARCOmadrid | 2025 | 214 galleries from 36 countries; 95,000 attendees | IFEMA |
| Motortec | 2025 | 710 exhibitors; more than 65,500 visitors from 80 countries | IFEMA |
| Genera and Matelec | 2025 | 800 companies; more than 57,000 visitors from 76 countries | IFEMA |
The exhibition centre covers 200,000 m², with 13 halls and 85 meeting rooms, and since 2019 IFEMA has also run the Palacio Municipal, according to its venues page. We compare it with other venues in Madrid convention centres.
Connectivity: airport, high-speed rail and metro
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport
According to Aena, in 2025:
| Indicator | Figure | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Passengers | 68,179,054 | +3% |
| International passengers | 51,394,869 | +5.5% |
| Domestic passengers | 16,667,665 | -4.2% |
| Flights | 430,616 | +2.5% |
| Cargo | 840,331 tonnes | +9.6% |
Three out of four passengers at the airport travel on international flights. Madrid Convention Bureau puts the number of destinations with direct flights at 192 and the number of airlines with international routes at 76, according to its why Madrid page.
For a congress, the most useful figure is the distance: the IFEMA exhibition centre and its Palacio Municipal are around 4 km from the airport, according to the MCB. From the airport to the city centre, the Exprés Aeropuerto bus runs 24 hours a day and takes around 40 minutes, according to esMADRID.
High-speed rail and urban transport
According to Madrid Convention Bureau, Madrid has high-speed rail links to 33 destinations, 219 bus routes and the second-largest metro network in Europe by length. Its infographic puts the metro at 294 km and 302 stations. For national conventions, high-speed rail means delegates from many regional capitals can make the round trip in a day.
Hotel supply
According to the Madrid Convention Bureau infographic, published in 2023:
| Category | Hotels | Rooms | Beds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-star | 35 | 5,955 | 12,068 |
| 4-star | 151 | 23,272 | 45,560 |
| 3-star | 76 | 6,241 | 12,032 |
| Total (all categories) | 306 | 38,302 | 76,354 |
Most of the capacity for groups is in four-star hotels. The hotels with the most rooms in the MCB venue listing are the Meliá Castilla (915), the Madrid Marriott Auditorium (869) and the Novotel Madrid Center (790). We compare them in the best convention hotels in Madrid.
General tourism: the context
Meetings tourism sits alongside record levels of leisure tourism, which competes for the same rooms:
- In 2024 Madrid received 11.2 million visitors and recorded 23.3 million overnight stays, according to the MCB statistics page. Its main international markets were the United States, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Mexico.
- In 2025 tourist spending reached a record 17,896 million euros, 11.1% more than in 2024, with 23.8 million overnight stays, according to the MCB.
For your event, this means that in the leisure high season, competition for rooms does not come only from trade shows.
What these figures mean for planning your event
Destination figures are not just sales arguments. Read properly, they tell you when and where it will be hardest to find space:
- Meeting volumes are high all year round. With more than 54,000 meetings a year, hotels with meeting rooms are busy continuously. For groups of 100 to 300 people, book 6 to 9 months ahead even if there is no trade show.
- IFEMA sets the peaks. With around 700 events a year and shows such as FITUR drawing more than 255,000 visitors, major show weeks change prices and availability across the whole city, not just next to the exhibition centre.
- Medical congresses take up a lot of space. A congress such as ESMO, with 37,000 delegates, or ESCRS, with 10,000, takes over several hotels at once and almost every private dining venue that week.
- The airport works in your favour. With three out of four passengers on international flights and the main venues a few kilometres from the terminals, Madrid makes it easy to run congresses with delegates from many countries and one-day events with fly-in, fly-out attendance.
- Four-star supply is extensive. For mid-range budgets that is an advantage; for luxury incentives needing many rooms, five-star supply is more limited and it pays to book earlier.
How can you use these figures in a bid or an internal proposal?
- For an international association: the ICCA ranking, recent major congresses (ESMO 2026 with 37,000 delegates) and air connectivity.
- For a procurement department: hotel supply by category, the distance from venues to the airport and the trade show calendar that affects prices.
- For a leadership team: the international awards and the volume of meetings, which show that the city has the suppliers and the experience.
- Always: cite the source and the year. A figure without a date loses value as soon as the next report is published.
What data is missing
There are figures we would like to give you but could not find published in detail as at 15 October 2026: the split of 2024 and 2025 meetings between corporate and association, by size or by type of venue, and the total number of meetings in 2025. When Madrid Convention Bureau publishes its full report, we will expand this guide.
How we help
If you are preparing a bid to bring a congress to Madrid or a proposal for your company, we can help with destination data, the choice of venues and hotels, and the budget. The MC Group team, our group, has more than 20 years' experience organising congresses and conventions, and has organised more than 100 corporate events in Madrid. There is more context on the destination in MICE in Madrid.
Tell us about your project via our contact page and we will send you a proposal within 24 business hours.
Sources
- Hosteltur: the ICCA ranking is turned on its head, Lisbon overtakes Vienna and Barcelona reaches the podium (21/05/2026)
- Madrid City Council: congress and meetings tourism had an impact of 5,674 million euros in 2024 (08/04/2025)
- Madrid City Council: Madrid wins its seventh award as the world's best meetings destination (07/12/2025)
- Madrid Convention Bureau: MCB 2026, more promotion and social impact (17/03/2026)
- Madrid Convention Bureau: why Madrid
- Madrid Convention Bureau: tourism statistics
- Madrid Convention Bureau: accommodation and infrastructure infographic
- Madrid Convention Bureau: congress calendar 2027
- IFEMA MADRID: 2025 growth and turnover (05/05/2026)
- IFEMA MADRID: leading trade show calendar 2026 (10/02/2026)
- IFEMA MADRID: FITUR 2026 results
- IFEMA MADRID: our venues
- Aena: Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport closes 2025 with record traffic figures
- esMADRID: getting to Madrid
