Best Cities - eight award winning cities

PRESS INFORMATION
MAY 2006

BestCities - eight award winning cities

The eight partners of the international convention bureau alliance BestCities Global Alliance: Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore and Vancouver, have in 2005 and 2006 won recognised awards worldwide. Accolades from both The Economist Intelligence Unit's business trip index in 2006 and AETRA's Airport Service Excellent Awards in 2005, rank a number of the cities as some of the world's best cities for business travellers.

The Economist Intelligence business trip index 2006

According to The Economist Intelligence business trip index 2006 BestCities partners Vancouver, Melbourne and Copenhagen are among some of the world's most desirable venues for business travellers. To be able to find out where to hold your the next conference or meeting, the Economist Intelligence Unit has developed a new way of assessing and comparing locations worldwide as potential venues for business travellers. Traditional surveys of this kind normally focus exclusively on costs. But business travel no longer includes exclusively client meetings. Conventions, training, corporate meetings and even leisure time aspects such as crime, climate, transport and recreation are equally important. A broad cross-section of both cost and comfort-related factors have, therefore, been chosen to form an index scoring rate of 1-100, where a lower score implies a more attractive prospect for the business traveller.

The Canadian BestCity partner Vancouver holds the 1^st place out of 127 participants in being the best city in the world for business travellers, having the right balance of both cost and comfort related aspects for the business traveller. The lively and cosmopolitan Australian state capital, Melbourne, is up near the top in 9^th place. The dynamic Danish capital, Copenhagen, is ranked as the best business destination in Scandinavia, the second best in Europe and the 17^th best city in the world for business travellers.

AETRA’sAirport Service Excellence Awards 2005

In 2005 AETRA carried out their annual survey about airport satisfaction. The survey is based on a benchmarking derived from over 100,000 completed questionnaires, collected from passenger surveys administered at 66 airports worldwide during all four quarters of 2004. All top three-ranking airports in the surveys 11 main categories were announced and awarded at a special awards ceremony.

In the survey the five BestCities partners: Singapore, Dubai, Copenhagen, Cape Town and Vancouver were all awarded with top 3 places in different categories. In the categories Best Airport
2005 Worldwide and Best Airport by Region (Asia/Pacific), Singapore won the prize as 2^nd best airport together with Hong Kong. Also Copenhagen, Dubai and Cape Town rank in the top 3 in the category Best Airport by Region. Copenhagen was awarded as the best airport in Europe together with Brussels. Dubai won the prize for the best airport in the Middle East/Africa, while Cape Town was rated as 2^nd best in the same category. In the category Most Improved Airport Vancouver won the prize for 2^nd most improved airport and Singapore was awarded with a 3^rd place.

Other awards

Prestigious awards have also been given to the partners San Juan and Edinburgh. In 2006 the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau of San Juan received the prestigious Pinnacle Award from Successful Meeting magazine in 2006. The Pinnacle Award winners are chosen from a survey of more than 75,000 meeting, incentive travel and convention planners who are asked to select sites and destinations based on the quality of the facilities and services they offer.

In Edinburgh the environment is an important focus area, which can be seen in the number of awards given to a wide range of venues in the city in both 2005 and 2006. For instance Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) received the VisitScotland Green Tourism Business Scheme's Re-accreditation Gold Award 2006 and the Keep Edinburgh Clean Gold Award in 2005. Keep Edinburgh Clean Awardrecognises the work that city businesses carry out to promote environmental action to both customers and suppliers.

BestCities Global Alliance

BestCities Global Alliance is a global convention bureau alliance formed in 2000 and is the only one of its kind. The partnership consists of eight partners on five continents: Boston, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Vancouver. Furthermore the alliance is expecting to expand to include San Juan by 2005 and is looking to add a city from Asia.

BestCities delivers some of the world's premier meeting destinations with high standards for the meeting industry, promising an assurance of quality, expertise and professionalism for clients and knowledge transfer for the partners. This year BestCities will start certifying their services via Lloyd's Registered Quality Assurance certification as a guarantee of quality towards the congress hosts.



Øresund Region Meetings & Conventions Hotels Cruise Town areas Fashion, Design & Shopping Gastronomy & Night life Sights & Events Copenhagen Specialities Hans Christian Andersen Press > Press information > Meetings & Conventions > Best Cities - eight award winning cities Best Cities - eight award winning cities PRESS INFORMATION MAY 2006 BestCities - eight award winning cities The eight partners of the international convention bureau alliance BestCities Global Alliance: Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore and Vancouver, have in 2005 and 2006 won recognised awards worldwide. Accolades from both The Economist Intelligence Unit's business trip index in 2006 and AETRA's Airport Service Excellent Awards in 2005, rank a number of the cities as some of the world's best cities for business travellers. The Economist Intelligence business trip index 2006 According to The Economist Intelligence business trip index 2006 BestCities partners Vancouver, Melbourne and Copenhagen are among some of the world's most desirable venues for business travellers. To be able to find out where to hold your the next conference or meeting, the Economist Intelligence Unit has developed a new way of assessing and comparing locations worldwide as potential venues for business travellers. Traditional surveys of this kind normally focus exclusively on costs. But business travel no longer includes exclusively client meetings. Conventions, training, corporate meetings and even leisure time aspects such as crime, climate, transport and recreation are equally important. A broad cross-section of both cost and comfort-related factors have, therefore, been chosen to form an index scoring rate of 1-100, where a lower score implies a more attractive prospect for the business traveller. The Canadian BestCity partner Vancouver holds the 1^st place out of 127 participants in being the best city in the world for business travellers, having the right balance of both cost and comfort related aspects for the business traveller. The lively and cosmopolitan Australian state capital, Melbourne, is up near the top in 9^th place. The dynamic Danish capital, Copenhagen, is ranked as the best business destination in Scandinavia, the second best in Europe and the 17^th best city in the world for business travellers. AETRA’sAirport Service Excellence Awards 2005 In 2005 AETRA carried out their annual survey about airport satisfaction. The survey is based on a benchmarking derived from over 100,000 completed questionnaires, collected from passenger surveys administered at 66 airports worldwide during all four quarters of 2004. All top three-ranking airports in the surveys 11 main categories were announced and awarded at a special awards ceremony. In the survey the five BestCities partners: Singapore, Dubai, Copenhagen, Cape Town and Vancouver were all awarded with top 3 places in different categories. In the categories Best Airport 2005 Worldwide and Best Airport by Region (Asia/Pacific), Singapore won the prize as 2^nd best airport together with Hong Kong. Also Copenhagen, Dubai and Cape Town rank in the top 3 in the category Best Airport by Region. Copenhagen was awarded as the best airport in Europe together with Brussels. Dubai won the prize for the best airport in the Middle East/Africa, while Cape Town was rated as 2^nd best in the same category. In the category Most Improved Airport Vancouver won the prize for 2^nd most improved airport and Singapore was awarded with a 3^rd place. Other awards Prestigious awards have also been given to the partners San Juan and Edinburgh. In 2006 the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau of San Juan received the prestigious Pinnacle Award from Successful Meeting magazine in 2006. The Pinnacle Award winners are chosen from a survey of more than 75,000 meeting, incentive travel and convention planners who are asked to select sites and destinations based on the quality of the facilities and services they offer. In Edinburgh the environment is an important focus area, which can be seen in the number of awards given to a wide range of venues in the city in both 2005 and 2006. For instance Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) received the VisitScotland Green Tourism Business Scheme's Re-accreditation Gold Award 2006 and the Keep Edinburgh Clean Gold Award in 2005. Keep Edinburgh Clean Awardrecognises the work that city businesses carry out to promote environmental action to both customers and suppliers. BestCities Global Alliance BestCities Global Alliance is a global convention bureau alliance formed in 2000 and is the only one of its kind. The partnership consists of eight partners on five continents: Boston, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Vancouver. Furthermore the alliance is expecting to expand to include San Juan by 2005 and is looking to add a city from Asia. BestCities delivers some of the world's premier meeting destinations with high standards for the meeting industry, promising an assurance of quality, expertise and professionalism for clients and knowledge transfer for the partners. This year BestCities will start certifying their services via Lloyd's Registered Quality Assurance certification as a guarantee of quality towards the congress hosts.