‘It Gets Down to Hotel Rooms’

Michael Gehrisch, President and CEO DestinationMarketingAssociation International (DMAI)

I don’t think that there’s really a need to clarify what a tier-one or tier-two city is, because often-

times it’s a perception on the part of the meeting planner. So a first-tier city—let’s useNewYork City as an example—maybe [the planner] doesn’t need [a big] convention center, but needs to be in a place where there’s a financial district, to have a finance-related meeting. Or maybe they need a convention cen- ter in the middle of the United States, so it’s a location issue. So Dallas might become a first-tier city over New York in that

MAKING DISTINCTIONS: Michael Gehrisch doesn’t think considerations other than the number of hotel rooms should be taken into account when

classifying destinations.

regard. The other thing is, what is a first-tier city depends on where you are. If you’re a meeting planner in Idaho, Boise is going to be a first-tier city. When you’re talking about first-tier, is it an international first-tier city? Domestic? Statewide? You could even get into the geographical attributes of a city.

Do you like the mountains? Do you like the sea? That might [enter into] a meeting planner’s preference for a first-or second- tier city. It might be attractions, it might be gaming, it might continued on page 40

PHOTOGRAPH BY JACOB SLATON