Brazil has won the bid to host the World Chambers Congress, an international event dedicated to leaders and chambers of commerce executives from around the world. The 11th edition of the international event will take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2019.
The Brazilian state capital had cities such as Bogotá (Colombia) and Orlando (United States) among its rivals, and was declared the winning bid to host the event on December 5th by the World Chambers Federation (WCF). This is the first time the Congress takes place in a South American city.
The event will have as its theme Creating a Shared Future. The city of Rio is also planning for a number of side events to be organized by Brazil’s different Chambers of Commerce at their own regions.
Business and Events
The efforts to bring the event to Brazil had the support of the Brazilian Tourism Board (Embratur). The corporate events segment, usually called MICE (short for Meetings, Incentives, Congresses and Events), is the 2nd biggest contributor to Brazil’s international visitor inflows, after Leisure.
MICE-related activity grew by 7.8% in Brazil compared with the same period last year, according to the Brazilian Association of Corporate Travel Agencies (Abracorp).
“Our country has been a strong supporter of city candidacies for international events since 2004, and the effort has put us on a global leading position. Currently, we are one of the leading countries in the world in terms of hosting MICE initiatives,” said Gilson Lira, Director of Competitive Intelligence and Tourism Promotion at Embratur.
Brazil leads South America in the MICE segment and is surpassed only the United States in the Americas, according to numbers from the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).