During the pandemic, the MICE sector—meetings, congresses, fairs and conventions—was one of the hardest hit globally. The massive cancellation of in-person events and the rapid adoption of virtual formats led many analysts to predict its definitive decline. In this context, the idea that face-to-face meetings would be relegated by digital solutions gained space even within the industry itself.
However, the subsequent scenario refuted these projections. Far from becoming extinct, meeting tourism recovered strongly and, in many markets, exceeded pre-2020 levels. In-person attendance not only remained valid, but once again imposed itself as a differentiating factor for generating business, professional exchange and building networks, even in an environment where hybrid formats continue to be available.
Buenos Aires, in particular, became one of the most illustrative cases of this dynamic. The city not only maintained its international positioning as an event venue, but also consolidated its regional leadership in a segment intensive in qualified employment, long-term planning and economic spillover into multiple activities. The Argentine performance in global rankings and the evolution of local activity reflected that the MICE sector did not go through a simple temporary rebound, but rather a reconfiguration with more solid foundations.
This diagnosis was the starting point of a meeting that the Buenos Aires Convention & Visitors Bureau (BAC&VB) held with a group of journalists from business and specialized media. There, the main representatives of the institution presented data, projections and strategic definitions about an industry that once again gained centrality in the City’s economic agenda.
«There was a moment when they predicted the end of the activity. The reality showed exactly the opposite,» said Carlos Solanet, president of the Buenos Aires Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Argentine Rural Society.
Founded in 1998, the Buenos Aires Convention & Visitors Bureau (BAC&VB) is a non-profit entity that articulates the private sector with the public sector to position the City as a competitive and reliable destination for international events. Throughout different administrations and economic contexts, the Bureau has sustained a long-term strategy that allows continuity to the policies for attracting congresses and conventions, beyond political and budgetary cycles.
«MICE needs predictability. It is an activity that is planned two, three, four years in advance, that implies working with all governments jointly regardless of political color,» added Solanet.
The numbers measure the weight of the activity. According to the 2024 Statistical Yearbook of the Economic Observatory of Meetings Tourism of Argentina, the segment generated a national economic impact of $3.45 billion in 2024, with 3,641 meetings held throughout the country and 7,866,961 attendees between congresses, conventions, fairs and exhibitions. Buenos Aires concentrated around 30% of the total meetings and 68% of the ICCA events, depending on its infrastructure and its level of internationalization.
In 2025, estimates for the City of Buenos Aires reinforce this trend. Around 1,134 MICE events were screened, with a total of 3 million attendees. The Bureau estimates that the total estimated economic impact for the City could reach US$2.5 billion, combining US$1.71 billion in visitor spending and US$790 million linked to the direct economy of the events.
The visitor profile explains a good part of this result. An international attendee at a MICE event in Buenos Aires recorded an average daily expenditure of US$188 and an average stay of 5.2 nights, resulting in a total expenditure of close to US$978 per trip. In the case of the national visitor, the average daily expenditure was US$140, with a stay of 2.3 nights and a total expenditure of US$322. Local attendees, although they did not spend the night, generated an estimated incremental urban expenditure of US$125 per event.
“For every dollar that a traditional tourist leaves, the MICE visitor leaves four,” Solanet summarized. This difference is not only explained by the stay, but by the type of consumption: higher category accommodation, gastronomy, transportation, professional services and complementary activities.
An economic impact study on a medical conference held in the City reinforces that reading. According to this survey, the expense of an international attendee was 11 times higher than that of an AMBA resident who attended the same event, while the expense of a national attendee was five times higher. Furthermore, for every peso spent directly on an event, two additional pesos were generated in other sectors of the economy.
The economy of the event itself constitutes another of the central drivers. For the 2025 calendar, the economic impact associated with the production of events – venue rental, technical production, logistics, catering, technology, staffing and professional services – was estimated at US$790 million, with a range that could reach US$900 million depending on the scale of the meetings.
«Unlike other tourism segments, MICE generates activity twelve months of the year. It is an urban economy that operates without seasonality and activates more than fifty activities,» said Mariano Castex, vice president of the Bureau.
This characteristic also explains its relevance in terms of employment. In 2024, meeting tourism employed 3,869 equivalent permanent jobs in core activities and 27,492 in supporting activities. It is a productive network made up mainly of SMEs, with strong participation of young people and technical profiles, which combines trades, services and knowledge.
In parallel, air connectivity accompanied this process. In June 2025 alone, Buenos Aires registered 6,026 international flights, with almost 960,000 passengers transported and an average occupancy of 78%, connecting with 36 cities abroad.
This context helps to consolidate the international positioning of the City. In the latest edition of the ICCA ranking, Buenos Aires was ranked as the number one city in America for the 14th consecutive year and as the only city on the American continent within the global Top 20, ranking 18th worldwide.
“Getting there is difficult, but staying there is much more complex,” said Castex. “This leadership is not a coincidence: it responds to a sustained policy of public-private coordination and the quality of human resources,” he added. “It is not a temporary achievement, it is consistency,” remarked Laura Veronesi, secretary of the BAC&VB.
This reputation is also reflected in the satisfaction indicators. According to data from surveys carried out at different events, more than 90% of attendees stated that they would return to the city, many of them even on subsequent leisure trips or with their families.
The institutional evolution of the BAC&VB itself functions as a thermometer of the sector. In the last year and a half, the entity grew by 25% in number of members, reaching 64 active members, of which around 50 are SMEs. “This growth reflects that activity has expanded again and that companies need to organize and professionalize,” Castex explained.
Castex added a key definition to understand the link between activity and the economic cycle. «MICE accompanies the real economy. When a sector grows—mining, health, technology, finance—the need for professionalization, meetings, and training grows. When these sectors shrink, the activity also feels it,» he explained.
During the exchange with journalists, the spokespersons detailed the lines of work that the Buenos Aires Convention & Visitors Bureau develops in coordination with the City Government, with a central focus on attracting international events. This task, which constitutes the Bureau’s reason for being, is carried out in coordination with Visit Buenos Aires – the public-private agency for the promotion of the destination, of whose board the entity is a member – and explained a good part of the positioning achieved by the City in global rankings.
On that basis, the second axis was linked to the continuous training of human capital, considered strategic to sustain international quality standards, together with the improvement of competitiveness through tax treatment consistent with a service export activity. The third axis points to investment in infrastructure, understood not only in building terms, but also in technology, connectivity and long-term financing.
As it is an export of services that generates income in foreign currency, the BAC&VB raises the need to review taxes such as Gross Income and the stamp tax. “We export services, but we pay taxes that other export activities do not pay,” said Solanet.
“We compete against cities and countries that have much more favorable tax schemes,” warned Claudio Anfuso, BAC&VB Accounts auditor. «Uruguay, Colombia, Peru or Panama offer VAT exemptions or zero rates for international events. We do not ask for privileges, we ask for conditions to be competitive and return that benefit in greater economic impact,» he stated.
At that point, the spokespersons agreed that some recent changes in the macroeconomic context improved the sector’s prospects. Castex highlighted that the partial flexibility of the stocks was key. «Today organizers can transfer funds, pay suppliers and operate with greater predictability. This unblocked conferences that were previously unviable and allowed events to be closed for 2026, 2027 and even 2028,» he explained.
Beyond mega events
One of the richest sections of the meeting arose when addressing the real structure of the MICE calendar. Although the large congresses concentrate visibility, the activity is mainly supported by a network of medium and small events, distributed throughout the year.
“There are many events that, together, generate stability,” Solanet explained. “They don’t stress the city like a massive spike and allow for seasonally adjusted hotel occupancy,” he said. Castex completed the idea: «The demands of the attendee are the same, whether it is an event for 200 people or one for 10,000. The experience has to be excellent in all cases.»
Training and youth employment, the silent challenge
The conversation also put a structural challenge on the table: the recruitment and training of young talent. “It is a labor-intensive industry, but working in events is not as glamorous as you think,” Anfuso acknowledged. “You work live, there is no margin for error, and that requires training, attitude and commitment,” he added.
The Buenos Aires Convention & Visitors Bureau and its partners advanced agreements with universities and training programs, while at the national level AOCA—the entity that brings together the organizers—developed a specific business school for the sector.
Finally, the referents were optimistic regarding the medium-term horizon. With events already confirmed for 2026 and 2027 and applications underway for subsequent years, meeting tourism is once again operating with the logic that defines it: long-term planning. “MICE is less sensitive to price or exchange rate, but very sensitive to experience,” Castex concluded. “And Buenos Aires today has something to compete with.”
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