International association meetings: Importance of destination attributes

The aim of our study is to discuss whether the key frequently identified destination attributes desired by associations and meeting planners determine the number of association meetings organized by each country in 2014. Regression analysis was used by ordinary least squares for the number of association meetings organized in 2014 by each country that shows the importance of 12 countries’ destination attributes reported in the meetings, incentives, conventions and events/exhibitions sector literature and included in the travel and tourism competitiveness index. Our study contributes to the literature in two ways: (i) to identify and evaluate the key attributes in the attraction of association meetings (until now dispersed) and (ii) empirically test the importance of these attributes in the selection of meeting host country. From a practical perspective, these findings give valuable information for destination management organizations and meeting planners about the factors that should be improved in each country in order to be selected more often in the organization of those events