The five U.S. destinations meeting planners intend to use
most in the next two years are New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando and
Washington, D.C., according to STR's 2019 DestinationMAP, or Meeting Assessment
Program. For international meetings over the next three years, London topped
the list, followed by Paris.
The cities that showed the greatest year-over-year increase
in group hotel demand were Louisville, Austin, Denver and Nashville. The report
surveyed 1,000 meeting planners' preferences and perceptions of 42 North
American cities, plus six international cities.
"All five [top North American] markets are particularly
popular in what we define as the largest meeting size segment—1,000-plus
attendees—along with Atlanta, Dallas and Austin," said STR senior director
of market insights Chris Klauda. "New to the list of 42 markets evaluated
is Puerto Rico. While not in the list of top destinations, a notable 4 percent
of [respondents] plan to hold a meeting [there] in the next two years."
Additional findings show that a majority of meeting planners
required more than one hotel for at least one of the events they planned over
the past 12 months. Safety, cleanliness, value and accessibility remain the
most important considerations for the majority of planners when selecting a
site. And the presence of panhandlers is an issue for meeting planners; about
40 percent will rule out a destination for this reason.
Planners were segmented by employer type and by largest meeting
size. Forty-six percent were corporate planners, 24 percent associations and 30
percent third parties. Twenty-seven percent planned meetings with more than
1,000 attendees, 33 percent planned meetings with 300 to 900 attendees and 40
percent planned meetings with 100 to 299 attendees.
STR selected the destinations based on the size of group
business in each market, and the company considered additional factors, such as
a new convention center or a recent surge or emphasis on group business. The
markets remain mostly the same each year, but in 2019 the survey added—in
addition to Puerto Rico—Kansas City, Missouri, and Columbus, Ohio.