Louisville, Ky., is on a roll. In December, the city led all markets with year-over-year meetings growth of 135.6 percent, according to Knowland by Cendyn, which measures meetings volume to help hoteliers analyze and grow their group revenue. It was the eighth time in 2024 that Louisville topped the secondary-market list, and it was especially noteworthy that growth exceeded that of the top 25 market leaders.
St. Louis led all top 25 markets, enjoying a year-over-year meetings-volume increase of 125.8 percent. Nashville was a rather distant second, with 28 percent year-over-year growth.
Growth in Top 25 Markets
The success in St. Louis wasn't due to any single large event. In fact, the top four accounts — HavenHouse, Acadian Infracom, Crisis Prevention Institute and the Train Shed — were responsible for just shy of 9 percent of the total volume. SMERF events, rather than corporate meetings, drove nearly 11 percent of volume. December meetings in the city averaged 2,112 square feet, with an average attendance of 97 — shy of the top-25 average, which was 3,045 total square feet and a group size of 121.
The five highest-growth markets in December among the top 25, along with the primary meetings sectors driving the volume, were:
- St. Louis (125.8 percent) — charity/nonprofit/social services, wedding, health care, social - sports, construction
- Nashville (28 percent) — health care, technology, manufacturing, consulting, financial/banking
- Atlanta (26.9 percent) — education, charity/nonprofit/social services, health care, technology, wedding
- Anaheim-Santa Ana, Calif. (21.4 percent) — technology, education, manufacturing, health care, legal
- Denver (16.8 percent) — technology, charity/nonprofit, social services, consulting, health care, education
Secondary market surge
Louisville's December success was driven in large part by the Women's Final Four College Volleyball tournament, which set attendance records. The city's events averaged 4,700 square feet, with an estimated group size of 154. The average meeting size for the month in secondary markets exceeded that of the top 25, with 3,052 total square feet and a group size of 122.
The five highest-growth secondary markets for the month, along with the sectors driving their success were:
- Louisville, Ky. (135.6 percent) — national association, education, food/beverage, state association, manufacturing
- Wisconsin South (67.6 percent) — state association, automotive, social - sports, wedding, manufacturing
- Savannah, Ga. (54.6 percent) — manufacturing, health care, charity/nonprofit/social services, national association, technology
- Long Island, N.Y. (47.5 percent) — training/education, religious/wedding, health care, manufacturing
- Jacksonville, Fla. (42.4 percent) — wedding, charity/nonprofit/social services, national association, consulting, education
