“It's impossible to map out a route to your destination if you don't know where you're starting from”

Quote by Suze Orman

Why is one destination preferred over the other, what is the decision to choose a destination based on and what can associations do to take control over the destination selection process?

From the results of a previous research we conducted, the following can be stated:

Destination Criteria

Distance to the airport is currently seen as the most important factor for deciding on a destination. Costs for both delegates and organizing party are also very important. But also criteria such as the availability of an international train station, availability of local host or local member and current hotel supply in a destination are of utmost importance to be a suitable conference destination.

So there is not one deciding factor but a combination of factors who need to be in perfect harmony to be the right destination. A complicated task with changing elements due to the current worldwide pandemic as well as the geopolitical situation, however nowadays the choice of a destination is becoming increasingly relevant. To find out what factors are making a difference we have created another survey questioning the critical success factors of destinations.

Why? To find out and be able to answer our questions about what makes a destination good conference material. And as we did before, we will write a market study sharing the results, so participating will help a great deal.

Selection process

In the previous mentioned survey it shows that 41% of associations have the destination selection process centralized. Meaning the association’s board is responsible for selecting the destination. With this in mind, being in charge of selecting the destination can contribute to the associations overall goals, sustainability wishes and support in creating impact. Whereas depending on local hosts to bid for the conference and being reactive in this sense, could mean losing sight of these goals and missions.

Creating a movement

With destinations all over the world focusing more on building strong ecosystems of certain clusters and will therefore be able to add more value to association conferences by building long lasting impact and a focus on the sustainability development goals (SDG) we think it is about time to start a movement. A movement about change and stretching the fact “how a destination can make your conference more successful?”

We call it:

Destinations as THE driving force of your conference! Are you in?