Melbourne has overtaken Sydney in the race, to hold the most international meetings in 2004. Melbourne held 33 international association meetings, Sydney 31, Brisbane 29, Cairns 17, Adelaide 13 and Perth 12.

This is the first time Melbourne has reached the top spot in a decade, as the halo effect created by the 2000 Olympics wanes for Sydney.

‘Now Melbourne, long considered Australia's events capital, can rightfully claim to be Australia's number one city for ‘International Business Events' said Garry Kingshott, CEO, Melbourne Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"In this month alone, Melbourne has won 8 international events worth more than $62 million to the State of Victoria. These meetings will bring 12,000 delegates to Melbourne who will spend over 46,000 nights in Melbourne hotels. They included three major medical conventions and three international science congresses".

"Melbourne is winning more and more international meetings," Mr Kingshott said. "With a new convention centre planned for completion in 2008 and increased international exposure for Melbourne next year with the staging of the Commonwealth Games, we expect to rise further in international rankings in the future."

The data on international meetings held in 2004 was released last week in Frankfurt by the International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA), based in Amsterdam. The ICCA DATA Statistics Report, The International Meeting Market 2004, provides analysis of trends in international association meetings. www.iccaworld.com