A centre of culture, sport and academe, the unofficial capital of New England is also home to world-class MICE venues. Paul Revel visits ‘the hub’
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BOSTON, HISTORIC BIRTHPLACE of American independence, is booming – certainly in terms of visitors. “For the third year in a row, according to US Department of Commerce data, 2011 saw an increase in overseas visitors to Boston, despite the recession, with growth of 11 per cent,” says Patrick Moscaritolo, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau (GBCVB). He adds that of the 1.3 million international visitors in 2011, 467,000 were business travellers, an 8.5 per cent year-on-year increase. “The only US destination that grew faster than us was Las Vegas.” He expects further rises for 2012, helped by increased international flights to the city. These figures are reflected by traffic at Boston’s Logan International
airport: passenger numbers for 2011 set a new record, and at just shy of 29 million, were around 800,000 higher than the previous peak in 2007. Boston’s distinctive New England charms were showcased to the wider business travel world in July, when 6,600 delegates arrived for the annual GBTA conference. The massive Boston Convention and Exhibition Centre comfortably swallowed the hundreds of exhibition stands, seated lunches for more than 6,000, and at times dozens of seminars, meetings and CEO panel debates simultaneously in its 80-plus meetings spaces. However, convention centres on
this scale are fairly standard fare in major US cities. Its 516,000sq ft of exhibit space and 160,000sq ft of meetings space, plus a 40,000sq ft
ballroom, puts it in around tenth place nationally in terms of size. What was of more interest to delegates with an eye on meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) potential was the rich variety of characterful venues showcased in the conference parties: boats on the harbour, the Boston Symphony Hall, historic theatres and atmospheric nightclubs. Small wonder one of the city’s many epithets is ‘the hub’. Robert Bottomley is account director at events specialist Grass Roots. He cites a range of eye-catching venues including the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, and Fenway Park, famous home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, which can host up to 5,000 guests. Other high-end options include the Museum of Fine Arts, the ultra-