The San Diego market led the U.S. meetings and events industry by volume for February, according to data from Knowland. Second place went to Chicago, with Dallas in third. The leading industry driver for meetings was technology and healthcare across four of the top five markets.
“Despite concerns about the technology sector—historically a big driver for corporate events—both technology and healthcare were strong contributors in February,” said Kristi White, chief product officer, Knowland. “Additionally, while the top 25 markets dominate the volume metrics, smaller markets are realizing the largest percentage of growth. This means growth is hitting almost every section of the country.”
Year-over-year comparison: February 2023 increased 149.1% over February 2022. Additionally, February realized 8.2% growth over 2019.
Top five markets (by volume): San Diego was in the lead hosting technology, followed by healthcare and pharma/biotechnology. Chicago closed out the month with healthcare groups at the top and manufacturing and technology coming in second and third. The following three markets, Dallas; Washington, DC; and Atlanta rounded out the top five markets. The chart below provides additional insight into the top drivers for these markets.
Top five markets (by percentage growth): Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC; Oahu Island, HI; Norfolk-Virginia Beach, VA; Charleston, SC; and Riverside-San Bernardino, CA, realized the largest percentage growth over February 2022.
Knowland’s data is designed to aid any hotel sales team looking to gain insight into hot accounts, in-depth competitive insight and access to data that matters to increase sales and profitability, whether in the meetings and events space or sales in general, according to the company.