Northstar Meetings Group Unveils Second Annual Convention Cities Index

SECAUCUS, N.J., June 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Northstar Meetings Group today launched its second annual Convention Cities Index (CCi), the only tool that uses extensive research and a weighted system to help meeting and event professionals identify the best destinations for large events. Northstar's CCi, sponsored by Visit Orlando, one of the world's leading convention destinations, provides comparative data for 25 convention cities in the United States and 25 cities globally.

Planners can use the Convention Cities Index to short-list and compare destinations by category, based on the needs and priorities of each event.

According to this year's composite data, the highest-indexed global cities across all metrics are Frankfurt, Germany; Las Vegas; Shenzhen, China; Shanghai; and Cologne, Germany. The top five U.S. convention cites are Atlanta; Anaheim, Calif.; Houston; Las Vegas; and Dallas.

"The beauty of this index is its aggregation of data representing the fundamental elements of an event organizer's buying decision," said David Blansfield, executive vice president and group publisher of Northstar Meetings Group. "Based on the characteristics of the business event, the budget and the priorities of the organizers and the attendees, the CCi provides in one place a relative comparison of all the key variables in all the major convention cities to help planners short-list the best destinations to host their events."

Overall, the CCi assesses convention center districts across six weighted categories: total exhibit space; number of hotel rooms within a 15-minute walk of the convention center; average hotel cost; travel time to the nearest international airport; the city's safety level for travelers; and the city's "lift" as defined by the number of direct flights to the destination monthly. The inclusion of direct air service was added to this year's CCi at the request of industry planners.

The 2021 CCi is featured in the May/June issue of Meetings & Conventions. To view the indices and compare destinations, download the full report here at NorthstarMeetingsGroup.com/CCI-2021.  Profiles for the top 25 convention cities in the United States and the top 25 in the world are also included in the report.

"The index is a simple, unbiased and easy-to-use guide for the world's top destinations, and the inclusion of the number of monthly flights is a great addition," noted David Peckinpaugh, president of Maritz Global Events.

CCi Methodology
To determine the rankings, Northstar Meetings Group conducted research based on the following sources:

• Exhibit space based on published figures from convention venues and/or convention and visitor bureaus.
• Number of hotel rooms near the convention center, determined by using Google Maps to identify hotels within a 15-minute walk (as estimated by Google Directions); followed by Northstar Meetings Group research on the current number of guest rooms in each qualifying hotel.
• Average travel time to the nearest international airport, based on Google Maps. Travel times were recorded for 7 a.m., without traffic.
• Average hotel cost, from Business Travel News' 2021 Q1 Corporate Travel Index; The Corporate Travel Index uses aggregated data on hotel costs, taxes and fees from Advito, DVI and Prime Numbers to calculate the average hotel rate (the country or state average was used for a few cities not included in the Index).
• Safety scores are from GeoSure, an app that synthesizes data from sources like the CDC and the World Health Organization. Among factors considered: health and medical concerns (including Covid-19 data), nighttime safety, LGBTQ+ safety, women's safety, theft and basic freedoms.
• Flights per month are from Cirium, an aviation analytics provider, which collects flight data from more than 2,000 sources, including airlines, airports and regulators. All direct flights into the area's airports were considered. CCi data is for May 2021.

CCi Webinar: June 23, 2021
To learn more about this year's CCi, join the key research team behind the index – Loren Edelstein, vice president and content director for Northstar Meetings Group; Elise Schoening, associate editor for Northstar Meetings Group; and Michael Becker, CEO of GeoSure – for a webinar, "Choosing the Best Convention Destinations for 2021," on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at 2 p.m. ET. Registration and details for the webinar can be found at NorthstarMeetingsGroup.com/Events-Calendar/Convention-City-Index-Best-Meeting-Cities-webinar.

About Northstar Meetings Group
Northstar Meetings Group is the leading B-to-B information and marketing solutions company serving all segments of the business meetings, events, sports and incentives market – including full- and part-time meeting planners, as well as corporate, association, sports and not-for-profit decision-makers, and incentive professionals, facilitating their professional development and achievement of business goals. The company's influential brands – Meetings & Conventions, Successful Meetings, Associations Meetings International, M&C Asia, Meetings & Incentive Travel, M&C China, Meeting News, Incentive and SportsTravel – currently serve over 400,000 active meeting and event planners and incentive professionals, across an integrated suite of data, digital, events and print products. For more information, please visit NorthstarMeetingsGroup.com.

SOURCE Northstar Meetings Group