Steady Growth in Demand for Zagreb as a Congress Destination

The number of congresses that take place in Zagreb is steadily growing for a number of good reasons: the activities of the Convention Bureau of the City of Zagreb which is part of the Zagreb Tourist Board, the professionalism and skills of the hosts in Zagreb's hotels and congress halls and the charm of the city which wins the hearts of is visitors with its spontaneity and contents.

The number of congresses and other meetings in the city of Zagreb is constantly on the rise. From the beginning of January to the end of September, over 120 congresses, seminars, conferences and other meetings were held in Zagreb, according to Mr. Dražen Hochecker, the Director of Zagreb's Convention Bureau. Traditionally, autumn is the period of most intense congress activity so only the year’s statistics will demonstrate that the Croatian capital is attracting a growing level of interest among congress organizers. 

Zagreb's well known hotels; Regent Esplanade Zagreb, Westin, Sheraton, International, Hotel Antunović, Four Points by Panorama and others have gained reputation as veritable miniature congress towns. Each of them boasts several congress and meeting rooms, state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment combined with a wealth of experience in organizing major congresses, smaller-scale meetings and banquets.

Congresses have also been held at the Vatroslav Lisinski Music and Conference Hall, the Congress Center of the Zagreb Fair and at the Hypo Alpe Adria Centre. But the list does not end there. In town, especially in its oldest part, the Upper Town, there are many representative halls for smaller-scale meetings and receptions. They have been successfully joined in the past by theater spaces, particularly the Croatian National Theater. 

Dražen Hochecker tells us that the interest in Zagreb is surprisingly high and steadily growing, which was confirmed at the recently held EIBTM fair. As a non-profit organization, the Tourist Board of the City of Zagreb had quite an enviable number of scheduled meetings at that 'congress summit' whereas representatives of Zagreb's hotels and tourist agencies – PCO's had even more, some of which resulted in concrete business deals which are the best indicator that Zagreb is in for a very dynamic congress year in 2008.