Tom Muldoon, president of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau said, "Philadelphia has successfully hosted many of the industry's largest conventions. With that history, Meeting Professionals International coming in July 1999, and the Republican National Convention in July 2000, we can proudly say Philadelphia has become the number one convention destination in the Northeast."

Chairman Jim Nicholson and RNC Site Selection Committee Chairman Jan Larimer credited Philadelphia's great convention and meeting facilities and venues, superior hotel accommodations, an outstanding hospitality community, financing, location, and the city's many attractions as some of the reasons why the Republican National Committee chose Philadelphia as the site for the 2000 convention.

Philadelphia has played host to some of the largest and most sought-after conventions in the country including the International Air-conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition; Major League Baseball's All-Star Game; the 80th International Lions Clubs Convention and many more. Prior to 1993, Philadelphia hosted a few city-wide conventions a year. Currently, Philadelphia welcomes 23-25 city-wide conventions each year.

In 1999, approximately 500,000 convention delegates will stay in Philadelphia hotels. These attendees are expected to generate an estimated economic impact of $163,600,238.

A national political convention, alone, can generate more than $100 million of direct economic impact, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The economic impact comes from 30,000 convention attendees using more than 20,000 hotel rooms throughout the city and the surrounding region. The amount of exposure to Philadelphia is priceless. The RNC attracts some 15,000 national and international journalists who report not only on the convention, but generate related stories on Philadelphia's attractions.

Meeting Professionals International (MPI) booked its July 1999 convention in Philadelphia prior to the RNC announcement. Edwin L. Griffin, Jr., CAE, MPI's president and CEO said they chose Philadelphia because, "Philadelphia has so much to offer conventioneers. We are pleased the world's largest meetings association will be bringing so much potential business to Philadelphia. I am confident many will return with their own meeting of hundreds and thousands of attendees each."