Seven countries bid for 2036: what a Games delivers to its host
October 10, 2026
Hamburg, Rome and Budapest pulled out of the 2024 race. This time the field is full, and each bidder can build its case on what it has already hosted.
More than 700 events · 14m room nights · US$12bn GVA · 49 countries · 180 cities · in the past 12 months
- Economic intelligence for congresses and conventions
Economic impact reports for your MICE event on demand
A tenth of the world's output and employment depends on the visitor economy
A congress is one of the fastest ways a city turns a week into room nights, jobs, and investment. Living Lab shows what each edition delivered to its host, and which city the next one would grow in most, on the same numbers.
- Economic intelligence for congresses and conventions
What a congress organiser or host city gets
One model of every candidate host city: its routes and seat capacity by week, its hotel supply and rate, its venue, its calendar, and the search interest in each delegate market. Signal137 measures what the completed edition delivered to the host city, net of displacement, so the congress has a track record to take to the next one. Demand137 ranks the candidate cities on what their infrastructure can deliver and what the destination will return.
- Understand what has happened
What the completed edition delivered to the host city: delegate spend, room nights, GVA, tax, and jobs, attributed to the congress and net of the week’s baseline. Delegate origin by market and how they arrived, so the markets with the most headroom are visible. Which exhibitors and delegates the city’s business base engaged with. Edition over edition on one method.
- Optimise what will happen
Each city scored on the access ceiling for the delegate markets: direct routes and seats in the congress week, rooms at the right rate, a calendar with no competing congress. The host support sized against the return to the city, so both sides sign a deal that grows the congress.
| Product | Your question | You get | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demand137 | Where the next edition should sit in the rotation | Delegate yield forecast for each candidate host, tied to the delegate base's actual travel patterns | A host sequence built on demand, not convenience |
| Demand137 | How big a room block to commit to before registration opens | Forecast delegate volume by origin, stay length, and price sensitivity | A room-block negotiation backed by a tested forecast, with your bargaining power on rate kept |
| Demand137 | Whether to keep, retire, or relocate a recurring congress | The next edition modelled under each option, with the counterfactual stated | A renewal decision the board can defend to its members |
| Demand137 | What relocating will cost in returning delegates | Repeat-attendance patterns by host, edition over edition | The relocation is priced before it is agreed |
| Demand137 | What happens if nothing changes? | Base, downside, and supported scenarios with a stated counterfactual | Staying as is and changing are both priced |
| Signal137 | What did the last edition deliver, and to whom? | Attributed delegate spend, room nights, GVA, tax, and jobs, net of displacement | The board sees attributable value, not gross activity |
| Signal137 | Did the programme change buy anything, or was it the venue? | Edition-over-edition comparison on one method, with the driver named | The next programme decision is made on what worked |
| Signal137 | What do we tell members and the host city the congress delivered? | A traceable path from registration data to attributable value and stated legacy | A value story that survives the first hard question |
| Signal137 | What did the host city gain, in terms the city will recognise? | Room nights, GVA, tax, and jobs attributed to the congress, on the method cities use | The bureau and the board read from the same number |
| Both | Who holds this, and where? | Model, data, and a trained team inside your jurisdiction | The evidence survives the change of PCO or board |
What did this edition deliver to the host city, and how do we tell that story to the next one?
Delegate spend, room nights, GVA, tax, and jobs attributed to the event, net of displacement. A mayor can take the number to the council, and the congress can take the story to the next host.
We are choosing between candidate cities. Which one will our congress grow most in?
Each candidate modelled against its accommodation capacity, transport access, delegate origin mix, and price profile. The strongest candidate is visible before the negotiation, and the venue deal is judged on the whole return.
How do we show a host state the return their public funding earns?
Attribution on the same method the state uses for any public expenditure: GVA, fiscal return, and jobs, stated per pound or dollar of support. The host state sees the return on its funding, and that return supports the case for the next edition.
Which delegate mix delivers the most to the destination, and how do we attract more of it?
Origin market, stay length, spend pattern, and repeat attendance all lift the return. Living Lab identifies that mix, and the congress markets to grow it.
How do we show edition-over-edition growth on one basis to the board and the next host?
Every edition runs on the same method and coefficient vintage. The board and the next host see a growth record, and the renewal case builds on it.
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