According to Expedia’s research, the study reports that greater than 60% of travelers expand business trips for leisure functions. This means that the destination topics extra than ever. These so-called “bleisure” (commercial enterprise + amusement) tourists take a median of six enterprise journeys consistent with the year.
To parent out the excellent cities for Bleisure, Fundera used a unique methodology.
The organization states: “We began our evaluation with a ranking of the fifty-one biggest U.S. Cities by using population. Then, we evaluated each metropolis primarily based on the metrics indexed below. Census records treat some nearby cities as part of an unmarried metropolitan vicinity, so they were suitable (Long Beach and Los Angeles, for example). We’ve got referred to the metropolitan area. After assigned every metric a weight proportional to its significance, we advanced a ranking of the great business travel destinations for 2019.”
Hotel Availability and Cost (30% of Ranking)
One of the most important necessities for business travelers is convenient, less costly lodging. The more motel rooms that a metropolis or metropolitan vicinity has, the easier it’s for commercial enterprise tourists to locate the best alternative, even though it was reserving a ride remaining minute. Availability of extra hotel rooms also makes a location nicely proper for website hosting a big occasion or convention. Hotel price is a vital metric in its personal right and acts as a proxy for different fees, including apartment automobiles and food.
Data at the variety of inn rooms in every destination comes from the Census Bureau’s 2016 County Business Patterns Survey (trendy to be had information). Hotel price records come from Business Travel News’ 2018 Corporate Travel Index. Together, lodge room availability and price account for 30% of the rating.
Commute Distance and Time (25% of Ranking)
Being caught in site visitors can postpone you for a vital assembly or event, so Fundera evaluated distance and tour time from every vacation spot’s most important airport to downtown. Fundera used rush hour (eight a.M. On a Monday) while checking travel time, for the reason that this is while maximum enterprise conferences or meetings would arise. This record comes from Google Maps and contains 25% of the ranking.
Dining and Entertainment Establishments (15% of Ranking)
Business journeys come up with the money for many possibilities for eating and amusement. You would possibly need to dine with a consumer, take part in a fun crew bonding interest, or explore the city after a long day of conferences. Fundera used the Census Bureau’s 2016 County Business Patterns Survey (modern-day to be had information) to discover the wide variety of dining and entertainment establishments in every town. The Census data displays duplicates establishment numbers for a few industry codes, so this data is approximated and accounts for 15% of the ranking.
Public Transportation Access (15% of Ranking)
Commercial enterprise tour costs are increasing globally, and agencies spend extra than 20% of their travel budget on car-related costs, including car condominiums, taxis, fuel, and tolls. Utilizing public transportation can help small enterprise owners reduce again on travel charges. Fundera used theNational Transit Database’s 2017 Service Data (trendy to be had data) to locate the number of public transportation trips in step with capita in each destination. Public transportation gets admission to accounts for 15% of the total rating.
Convention Center Size (10% of Ranking)
According to a survey using American Express, the number of in-person conferences and activities is anticipated to grow this yr globally. Business events also are anticipated to have extra attendees and closing for an extended time. In this manner that the quality commercial enterprise travel locations need to be properly prepared to host events. Fundera evaluated every city primarily based on the rectangular pictures of the local convention middle. Data comes from the individual conference centers’ websites and money owed for 10% of the whole rating.
Alternative Transportation Bonus (5% of Ranking)
Some business tourists are relying increasingly on alternative strategies of transportation. Electric scooters have popped up in dozens of cities across the U.S. Together, Bird and Lime, the 2 most famous scooter agencies, have provided more than 30 million rides. Many cities are instituting rules to authorize scooters or adjust scooters that can be already in use. Scooters fee $1 to lease plus 15 cents consistent with minute. Helicopter sharing is a great deal, much less not unusual than scootering, but drastically greater pricey.
Fundera assigned a low weight—5 percentage to this class because scooters and helicopter-sharing have not emerged as mainstream transportation options for business tourists.
Key findings blanketed:
Large towns, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, ruled the top 10 commercial enterprise travel destinations. This is due to easy motel get admission to and a plethora of dining and enjoyment alternatives.
However, some smaller cities made a sturdy displaying, with Miami and Atlanta in the pinnacle 10. Smaller towns acquired excessive scores for affordability, mild site visitors, and convenient access to downtown.
There are some regional overlaps within the pleasant locations for commercial enterprise journeys. For example, Los Angeles and Long Beach earned high factors as enterprise tour destinations, as did the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington vicinity of Texas.
Six of this year’s top 10 commercial enterprise journey locations are coastal regions. In precise, California has 3 coastal regions inside the pinnacle 10.
Taking these elements into consideration, right here are the areas that might be presently great ready to deal with the needs of commercial enterprise vacationers:
10. San Diego
San Diego’s city is a huge draw for enterprise tourists, particularly those inside the healthcare, biomedical, and cleantech industries. This is one of the most efficiently run big towns inside the U.S., because of this, residents and visitors alike can count on brilliant services and infrastructure. San Diego has 483 hotels and over 20,000 dining and leisure institutions, with motel quotes averaging $201 in keeping with the nighttime.
San Diego International Airport is conventionally located close to downtown, just 3 miles and a brief 15-minute force away. The airport-to-downtown force time is the fifth fine amongst all of the cities we evaluated. San Diego does not have amazing public transportation, with just 27 journeys consistent with capita every yr. However, you may continually zip around to meetings in an electric scooter. Many scooter corporations are running in the city after the San Diego City Council approved a permitting technique for scooter businesses.
9. Washington, D.C.
Most people view Washington, D.C. As a haven for government people. The country’s capital is specifically critical for authorities workers and federal contractors—however, D.C. It also has thriving hospitality, expert offerings, and a retail scene.
Business vacationers in D.C. Might can pick from over 36,000 eating and amusement establishments and 659 accommodations. The average nightly price for a motel is a pricey $325. You have a choice of three airports, but getting to downtown D.C. From the biggest airport—Dulles International—should take beneath an hour even in heavy site visitors. If you alternatively get for your assembly or occasion with education aid, you are in luck. D.C. Ranked because the fourth-high-quality metropolis for public transportation access.
8. San Francisco-Oakland* metropolitan area
It may not surprise enterprise proprietors inside the technology area that San Francisco and Oakland are a number of the top ten pleasant commercial enterprise tour destinations. However, it takes many human beings to fill the seats in a tech organization. Workers in advertising, sales, and centers frequently do more touring than engineers.
San Francisco is not a large city in terms of length (it’s approximately forty-seven square miles) or populace, but it is densely packed and high priced. There are 708 motels inside the San Francisco-Oakland place. On the San Francisco side of the bay, motels value an average of $387 in step with night. For a much less costly stay, attempt Oakland, in which the average resort room fees simply $242 in line with night.
This area has 37,000 dining and leisure institutions. The force-time from the San Francisco Airport to downtown San Francisco clocks in at an affordable 45 mins even during rush hour. You can also use trains, buses, and scooters—and helicopter sharing to get San Francisco and Oakland if you have the price range.
Interestingly, one Bay Area metropolis that didn’t cut in San Jose. San Jose has often classified as the unofficial capital of Silicon Valley because it’s positioned close to the most important tech companies—Google, Facebook, and Apple. Recently but San Francisco and neighboring Oakland were greater aggressive in recruiting tech organizations and attracting enterprise skills.
*The Census additionally includes Hayward in this metropolitan place. Still, we didn’t encompass Hayward in our analysis because it is not one of the fifty largest towns by way of the populace.
