Destinations around the world are vying to increase their share of the lucrative meeting market, which represents more than 13 percent of total travel and tourism spending and generates $845 billion in sales in the U.S. alone. So which cities are coming out on top?

According to the annual ranking of the top meeting destinations around the world released by event and hospitality technology company Cvent this summer, the usual suspects were present and accounted for — in the U.S., for example, Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; and Chicago remained at the top of the list of U.S. cities.

But this year they were joined by some smaller cities, including Aurora, Colo. (No. 42), and Burlingame, Calif. (No. 49). Also new to the U.S. top destinations list this year were Detroit (No. 44) and Memphis, Tenn. (No. 48). Rounding out the top 10 in the U.S. were San Diego; Atlanta; Dallas; Nashville, Tenn.; New York; Washington; and San Francisco, which took the 10th spot held by Phoenix last year. (Here’s the full list of the top 50 U.S. destinations.)
The list, which was compiled based on data from the Cvent Supplier Network’s sourcing activity, also covers the top destinations in five regions outside the U.S. Here are the 2018 top five in each of the global regions outside the U.S.:

Caribbean and Latin America (top 25 list here)
1. Cancun, Mexico
2. Nassau, Bahamas
3. Playa del Carmen, Mexico
4. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
5. San Juan, Puerto Rico

Canada (top 10 list here)
1. Toronto
2. Vancouver, British Columbia
3. Montreal
4. Calgary, Alberta
5. Ottawa, Ontario

Europe (top 25 list here)
1. London
2. Barcelona, Spain
3. Berlin
4. Amsterdam
5. Madrid

Middle East and Africa (top 10 list here)
1. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2. Johannesburg
3. Cape Town, South Africa
4. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
5. Marrakesh, Morocco

Asia Pacific (top 25 list here)
1. Singapore
2. Sydney
3. Bangkok
4. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
5. Hong Kong

“Our data demonstrates that more events are being held all over the globe,” said Chris McAndrews, vice president of marketing for the Cvent Hospitality Cloud. “This highlights the overall strength and positive impact the meetings and events industry has worldwide.” Globally, the network was used to source more than 40 million room nights for 715,000 events in 2017, representing $14.7 billion.

The company bases its rankings on factors such as the number of unique requests for proposals received, the number of awarded requests for proposal, the number of room nights awarded and the number of profile views. It also considers accessibility and the quality of the destination and facilities, price and price flexibility, personal safety for attendees, and whether it has a point of differentiation. — Sue Pelletier