When it comes to hosting meetings and
conventions, no destination better defines
Southern hospitality than Atlanta — because
the best part of Atlanta lies not in its concrete
and steel, but in its people. From convention
services to concierges, Atlanta’s collaborative hospitality industry knows how to make
meetings run flawlessly.
Home to the fourth-largest convention
center in the United States, Atlanta is known
by meeting planners as a premier convention
destination. However, this hub of the Southeast offers much more than meeting space: 80
percent of the U.S. population is within a two-hour direct flight, due to ample airlift through
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
Airport. MARTA, Atlanta’s public rail system,
connects all four of the city’s districts, each of
which has hotels at every price point, as well as
award-winning dining options, top attractions,
and flexible venues for meetings of any size.
In the past t wo years, Atlanta has evolved
on multiple fronts, including new attractions,
Center (GWCC). The launch of the Atlanta
Streetcar also established a new mode of
getting around downtown’s compact con-
vention district. As for shopping, the new,
$1-billion The Shops Buckhead Atlanta devel-
opment has added 300,000 square feet of
high-end retail shopping and dining to the
neighborhood, and the 2.1-million-square-
foot Ponce City Market in Midtown has about
two dozen dining outlets and more than two
dozen shops.
More attractions are on the way. Plans
to build the 225-foot-tall Sky Tower Atlanta
— which will include three rides — across
from Centennial Olympic Park are in the
works, with an anticipated opening in mid-
2016. Hotel Indigo Downtown recently
opened in one of downtown Atlanta’s first
office buildings, with 206 guest rooms and
suites. Three additional hotels are also set
to open in 2016 — the 166-room AC Hotel
Buckhead, a 146-room SpringHill Suites in
downtown, and the 128-room Home2 Suites
by Hilton Atlanta Downtown. The Atlanta Fal-
cons’ and Atlanta United FC’s new, $1.2-bil-
lion Mercedes-Benz Stadium will open in
2017 just south of the Georgia Dome. That
same year, the Atlanta History Center’s new,
23,000-square-foot annex will open as the
new home of the Atlanta Cyclorama. Looking
even further ahead, in 2018 the 220-room
Hard Rock Hotel Atlanta will open adjacent
to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The GWCC is also
planning to build a four-star, 800- to 1,000-
room convention hotel.
Currently, Atlanta has the fourth-largest
convention center in the country, which
serves as the anchor of Atlanta’s downtown
convention corridor. The 3.9-million-square-
foot GWCC has 1. 4 million square feet of
exhibit space spread over 12 halls, along with
Atlanta
Convention capital of the New South
Place to be In 2015, Travel + Leisure ranked Atlanta ninth on its list of America’s 20 most cultured
cities, and The Huffington Post called it a destination to watch.
