Candidacy of a city to host the 19^th World Congress and the 2028 General Assembly of the OWHC

Criteria for a City’s Eligibility to Host an OWHC World Congress

The city must:

• Be a member in good standing of the OWHC for the year in which it submits a candidacy, as well as for the two (2) previous years
• Have a conference hall to accommodate at least 500 persons for plenary sessions
• Have a meeting room with a capacity of 125 persons for the General Assembly
• Have 8 smaller meeting rooms varying in capacity from 10 to 30 persons for the Regional Meetings and other parallel workshops
• Have the information and communication technology to provide the necessary connectivity (internet – Wi-Fi) at the congress venues
• Be able to provide and assume the cost of the required equipment for the meeting rooms and offices as set forth in the “Manual of Procedures for Hosting an OWHC World Congress”
• Have a sufficient number of hotels in various categories to accommodate the Congress participants
• Accept all of the terms of the “Protocol of Agreement” between the Host City and the General Secretariat of the Organization of World Heritage Cities.

Procedure

Further to a City’s initial expression of intent to be a candidate for host City, the City must submit a bid file, with detailed descriptions of the conference venues and the hotels, signed by the Mayor, verifying that all of the above criteria can be met. Only then can a City’s candidacy for host city be accepted.

This bid file must be sent by email, to the following address: [email protected]

We also invite you to download the Manual of Procedures, which is intended for the host cities of the OWHC World Congresses. This manual will give you an idea of the requirements and steps for the organization of this event. Some details may be adjusted following the 18^th World Congress and prior to the signing of the next protocol of agreement, but the host city will be informed and consulted.

In Marrakech, the mayors of the candidate cities will be invited to make a short presentation of a maximum of 5 minutes. The presentations will take place in the morning of Tuesday 27 October 2026, and the voting period for the election of the host city will be held during lunch time on Wednesday 28 October. The name of the host city of the 2028 World Congress will be announced during the last session of the General Assembly, on Thursday 29 October in the afternoon. All the mayors interested in submitting the candidacy of their city are invited to complete the following form.

Deadline to submit a candidacy

You have until 1 hour before the opening ceremony of the congress on October 26 to submit your candidacy. However, in order for you to have time to promote officially your candidacy and for us to have time to analyse your bid file, we invite you to submit your candidacy no later than 2 weeks before the beginning of the congress, i.e. no later than 12 October 2026.

Candidacy form

Once your form is filled in, you will receive a confirmation email within a few days. If you don’t receive it, or if you experience technical problems to send your form, please contact Ms. Andréanne Charest: [email protected]