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Special Report
Destination Competitive Index
Ranking cities in terms of their competitive strength for attracting international conventions.
About the Report
Since 2018, GainingEdge’s Destination Competitive Index has ranked destinations based on their competitive strength to attract international conferences. We analyse destination competitiveness with the aim to help them understand which strategies and activities they can use to be successful.
Since 2018, GainingEdge’s Destination Competitive Index has ranked destinations based on their competitive strength to attract international conferences. We analyse destination competitiveness with the aim to help them understand which strategies and activities they can use to be successful.
Miloš Milovanović
Head of GainingEdge Analysis & Research (GEAR)
For More Information
Destination Competitive Index 2021
For the last four years, the GainingEdge Destination Competitive Index has ranked destinations based on their competitive strength to attract international conferences. Our focus in 2021 was to analyse destinations’ competitiveness with the aim to help them understand which strategies and activities they can use to speed up their recovery post-pandemic.
In 2021, the total competitive scores for all 101 cities – the same cities as in previous reports –declined due to the impact of COVID-19, although the relative positions among most have not changed dramatically with many destinations maintaining the same or similar ranking as last year.
Destinations which experienced a relatively greater decline are cities which have scored well in the past because of their air accessibility and large meeting venues, as well as leisure cities with strong destination appeal. Also, there is a trend that smaller destinations with more flexible infrastructure, and those with a strong association community, are less affected.
Our Advice to All Destinations
Analyse your competitiveness within the correct set of other cities in order to better understand your current challenges. In doing so, you can develop more efficient and effective strategies for speedy recovery from the pandemic downturn.
Key Takeaways
- Intellectual Engagement – Build relationships with local association leaders and leverage on their international reputation.
- Flexible Approach – Have more flexibility in product offerings and an agile market approach.
- Technological Advancement – Be ready to use new technologies in meetings and events to cater for live and remote participants.
- Regional Focus – Work the national and regional markets for these are the short-term yield sources.
Each destination should compare its advantages and challenges within its primary competitive set and based on that analysis decide how to combine these strategically to become more competitive.
The Destination Competitive Index can help destinations with:
The Index is a useful source of information for such analysis and a helpful tool for establishing competitive sets.
The Index offers a tool for comparing the relative competitive strengths of destinations, which in turn provides insights into how those relative strengths relate to business outcomes.
The Index allows bureaus and destinations to strengthen these assessments based on a more sophisticated model, which sheds light on the issue of “comparability”.
Sometimes we find that destination stakeholders (public and private) embark on visioning processes without any robust assessment of how visionary the goals actually are. The Index provides a useful benchmark for visioning processes.
Once destinations have established meaningful vision and goals, the next step is putting in place strategies that will drive success. The Index provides useful insights into focus issues that will underpin those strategies.
As destinations set goals and develop a more rational focus on competitive sets and relative performance levels, they will be more capable of evaluating the resource needs that will be required to achieve their strategic goals.
The Index helps destinations compare themselves to others in relation to key product issues. If they want to increase their competitiveness, they’ll have an easier time identifying the factors that require the most attention and validates to policy makers and industry what needs to be done.
The Index helps identify key issues that need to be addressed in a destination’s communications processes.
GainingEdge Experts on This Special Report
Miloš Milovanović
Head of GainingEdge Analysis & Research (GEAR)
