Croatia won a prestigious award as Europe's best destination for conference tourism in 2018, the national tourism board said on Wednesday.

The British magazine Business Destinations, a premier trade industry publication about conference tourism, bestowed its 2018 Award for Best Destination for MICE in Europe.

MICE is an industry acronym for “meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions,” and refers to the type of group tourism which deals with seminars, conferences, and other specialised events.

The magazine’s annual awards are given in twelve categories for seven continental regions of the world, recognising the best hotels, airlines, spas, and conference centres for business travel.

“This award is important for us because the selection for the awards is done by the magazine’s editors together with its readers and business travellers around the world. This market is very important because business travellers are a stable source of revenues, which, depending on trends, is often highest in the periods before and after the peak summer season. Business travellers make up 10-15 percent of all hotel guests,” head of the national tourist board, Kristjan Stanicic, said in a press release.

In other continents, the best destinations in 2018 were Boston (United States), Medellin (Colombia), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), South Africa, Jeju (South Korea) and The Timber Yard centre in Melbourne (Australia).

In Europe, the best conference destination was the Square Brussels Meeting Centre in Belgium, and the best destination for cultural tourism was Estonia’s capital Tallinn.

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