CONVENTION PARTICIPATION DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

Attending meetings and conventions currently represents the largest ma rket segment in business travel. More than 1 million association and c orporate meetings are held annually in the United States alone, yieldi ng an estimated 85 million attendees who spend more than US$75 billion annually. This paper provides an overview of the research extended in the areas of associations' location choice and participation decision -making variables of the attendees. Two models are proposed. One addre sses the interactions and interrelationships among associations, host locations, and attendees. The second model addresses the convention pa rticipation decision-making process by potential attendees. The influe ncing variables are then categorized into personal/business, associati on/conference, location, and intervening opportunities. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd