Results were tabulated and ranked based on overall meeting cost.*  The top ten cities for meetings tabulated by GetThere DirectMeetings (ranked highest to lowest) are:
 

“Cost plays a critical role in the meeting planning process, but corporations have not had access to all of the information needed to understand the total economic impact that a meeting can have on their budget,” said Glenn Bingham, vice president of meetings and events at GetThere.  “We tabulated the results of our survey using GetThere DirectMeetings to demonstrate how meeting planners can access a wealth of information via the Internet to make the most informed decision when selecting a meeting destination.”

To identify the top ten cities, GetThere planned a mock meeting based on fifty attendees—with two attendees coming from each of the twenty-five most populated cities in the U.S.  GetThere DirectMeetings evaluated three-, four- and five-star hotels, leveraging information from its database of 10,000 hotel properties.  The online system evaluated hotel room rates, estimated food and beverage expenses and meeting room rental rates, as well as more than 250,000 potential airfares. 

GetThere DirectMeetings is an online system that has access to more than 10,000 hotel properties around the world. 

GetThere, a Sabre company, operates the world’s largest Internet marketplace focused on business-to-business travel services. 

GetThere LP is wholly-owned by Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE: TSG), the leading provider of technology and marketing services for the travel industry.