The BestCities Global Alliance—a partnership of worldwide destination marketing and sales organizations including those of Cape Town, South Africa; Copenhagen; Dubai, U.A.E.; Edinburgh, Scotland; Melbourne, Australia; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Singapore; and Vancouver, British Columbia—has marked its tenth anniversary of serving the international meetings market.

Ana María Viscasillas, president and CEO, Puerto Rico Convention Bureau, kicked off her term as the new chairwoman of the Best Cities Global Alliance at IMEX in Frankfurt in May by reaffirming the organization’s mission. “Our goal is to be recognized globally for setting new standards and innovations within the industry and delivering the best convention bureau practices for the meetings industry,” she said.

Goals during her tenure include:
1. Working to increase leads and sales for each of the members of the alliance
2. Expanding the alliance with new, qualified member cities
3. Increasing the cooperation between alliance members to share resources and better serve meeting planners and their delegates

The BestCities Global Alliance was launched in Melbourne in February 2000. Since then, it has attracted and shared hundreds of client referrals and developed its own set of Client Service Standards for international meeting clients. In 2008, the partners of BestCities became the first destination marketing organizations to have service standards certified by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance, a worldwide certification program for convention bureau organizations.

The BestCities Web site has details on the partner locations, plus a calendar of planner events hosted by BestCities.