| Abstract: | ABSTRACT The convention and meetings business worldwide has grown to become a significant economic, political, and social phenomenon. Convention centers aggressively compete for the right to become the destinations for conventions, which increasingly can be held anywhere in the world. More recently, first-tier convention centers have begun to use digital marketing by developing sites on the World Wide Web. However, very little research to date has focused on these convention center Web sites. This study examined the Web sites of 10 major convention centers in the U.S.-each with 500,000 square feet or more of exhibit space-in terms of technical, marketing, internal, and customer critical success factors (CSFs). It was concluded that these Web sites should be further developed and improved, particularly in their marketing and customer-related aspects. The Web sites were evaluated once in 2000 and again in 2001, and a slight improvement in performance was noted. |
