Statistic report of International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).

Opatija is with Zagreb and Dubrovnik one of Croatia's most popular MICE destinations throughout the year. Today even more since the country has built a modern and reliable highways connecting central Croatia to its western and southern parts.
The tradition of congresses in Opatija is nearly as old as the tradition of tourism. One year after the opening of the first hotel in Opatija (the Hotel Kvarner in 1884), Dr. Theodor Billroth and the Austrian Southern Railway Company organised a meeting of balneologists in 1885, where they also discussed the issue of proclaiming Opatija a winter health resort. This was later confirmed by the emperor Franz Joseph II who officially declared Opatija a health resort in 1889.
The importance of Opatija as a convention destination is reflected in the fact that in the late 1960s and in the 1970s, the headquarters of Meditercongress, the International Association of Organisations and Conference Towns interested in the Mediterranean area, which had approximately thirty members, was located in Opatija.
From congress capacities in Opatija that stand out are Milenij Grand Hotel 4 opatijska cvijeta, Hotel Kvarner.

Opatija is the center of the Riviera with the longest tradition of tourism in Croatia. Favorable geographic position, enabling its warm seas of Central Europe, about 500 km from Milan, Vienna and Munich, lush vegetation and pleasant climate are the most important reasons for the origins and rapid development of tourism in the late 19th century.