Honolulu Ranks as Top Business Destination
By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 6/26/2006
Officials at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu have reason to plan a luau: The city was recently named one of the best business destinations in the world and the center received a $3 million budget increase from the Hawaii State Legislature.
Honolulu was the top U.S. city in the 2006 worldwide business trip index, published by the Intelligence Unit of Economist magazine. The report ranked 127 cities around the globe as business destinations using a complex system that rates cost, safety, health care, culture and environment.
The three best cities for a business trip, according to the report, are all in Canada — Vancouver (British Columbia), Calgary (Alberta) and Toronto — followed by Adelaide, Australia. Honolulu came in at No. 5. Only one other U.S. city was in the top 10: Cleveland (No. 6). Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Boston and Minneapolis all cracked the top 20.
Joe Davis, SMG's general manager of the Hawaii Convention Center, said the ranking came as a surprise.
"We're always wrestling with this boondoggle issue: Can you really conduct serious business in Hawaii?" he said. "I think this is another arrow in the quiver to rebuke that notion. You can do business here, it's not that expensive, and it's far more productive than people think."
Coming off that good news, the HCC learned earlier this month that it would get a $3 million addition to its annual $20 million budget, along with a $1 million reserve for catastrophes.
Davis said the Hawaii Tourism Authority "went to bat for us" to get the funding, which will be used, among other things, for a long list of capital improvements.
Some, like building a system to improve energy efficiency, will involve major allocations meant to drive down the cost of running the center in the long run. Others will be minor, ongoing improvements, like new paint, carpeting and flooring.
