The latest to be announced is the ninth World Congress of Herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians.
It will be held in 2020, and will result in 6000 rooms being booked for accommodation, and an estimated $2.1million added to the Dunedin economy, according to Enterprise Dunedin.
The booking continues a recent strong trend of attracting conferences.
The industry is becoming a multimillion-dollar earner.It came after University of Otago department of zoology Prof Phil Bishop delivered the city’s bid to the eighth world congress, on August 20, in Hangzhou, China.
Prof Bishop said his bid followed Australia’s at the congress.
"They tried to sell it on quantity.
"I said what we lack in quantity we make up for in quality."
Prof Bishop said New Zealand’s indigenous animals were unusual.
"We don’t have a lot of them, but they are very unique and unusual."
He also pushed the city’s tours, clean air, clear sky, Aurora Australis and the experience attendees would have with albatrosses and seals.
He said he was also competing with Kenya, Hungary and Morocco during his bid.
Delegates would be coming from 120 countries, and the benefits to the university were "tremendous".
"The University of Otago, although it’s got a really good international reputation, is probably only known to other academic institutions, whereas it will get a lot of coverage all over the world from hosting this major international conference."
Enterprise Dunedin business events tourism adviser Bree Jones said there had been a conference in 2013 that attracted 1200 to 1300 people, but the herpetology congress would be "one of the bigger ones" the city had hosted.
There was another conference "win" she expected to be able to announce soon, after some minor details were dealt with.
Ms Jones said attracting the conference was due to another successful collaboration between the university, Enterprise Dunedin and Tourism New Zealand, using the latter’s conference assistance programme.
The continued success in attracting international conferences showed there was an appetite for the what Dunedin offered as a conference destination.
The herpetology conference would showcase the university’s scientific research, and highlight the city’s natural environment, ecotourism and wildlife to the delegates attending.
