So-called “second-tier” cities gained ground because of more attractive hotel rates in our top 25 list this year, but that trend is likely to accelerate in the future due to safety concerns around COVID-19. Pittsburgh, Boise and Tampa are three examples. All have affordable room rates and above average scores in most other areas. Pittsburgh excelled in the tourism ranking factor which also considers a city’s parks. A few other cities in our top 25 with an abundance of city parks are St Paul, Madison, Wisconsin and Portland, Oregon.
Walkability, affordablilty of hotel rooms, ease-of-access, safety and exciting tourism options are other city assets that make for a good convention. We’ve measured these things for 166 cities nationwide to come up with our rankings.
*SEE: Explanation of the criteria used for the ranking of the best convention cities in 2020
Note: Only cities with convention centers are eligible for the annual top 25 list. Click here to see the ranking of all 166 USA cities used in the report.
Sources: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/searchresults.xhtml
https://censtats.census.gov/cbpnaic/cbpnaic.shtml
https://www.bestplaces.net
https://www.flightsfrom.com/
https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy15-cargo-airports.pdf
https://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104877
https://www.walkscore.com/
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/land-based-station-data/land-based-datasets/climate-normals/1981-2010-normals-data https://pennenvironment.org/sites/environment/files/reports/Trouble%20in%20the%20Air%20vPA.pdf