An Exploration of Attractiveness of Convention Cities Based on Visit Behavior

ABSTRACT

As more and more cities build convention centers, competition has intensified. Researchers have mainly conducted studies from the perspective of meeting planners. More recently, important attributes of convention attendees at the level of specific convention centers have been examined. This study explored potential convention attendees’ relative attractiveness of six convention cities in California based on visit behaviors. A total of 366 self-administered questionnaires were used for the analysis. Results showed that convention attendees perceived the attractiveness of convention cities according to their visit behavior. The findings provide managerial implications for convention and visitors bureaus and convention center sales and marketing managers to develop more effective marketing strategies.

Keywords:

• Convention city
• attractiveness
• visit behavior
• multidimensional scaling (MDS)