Residents’ perceptions of convention centres: A distance decay analysis

Public investment in convention centres represents a relatively common approach to stimulating economic development in many large cities throughout the world. The rationale is that metropolitan authorities can thereby attract business tourists and promote positive (business friendly) images of their locality. While the economic dimension of such spending has received some attention, especially by consultants, there has been little theorising or empirical research which has examined residents’ perceptions of such development. This is in 2 sharp contrast to examinations of resident perceptions of leisure tourism, which has witnessed extensive academic interest. This paper analyses residents’ perceptions of the Busan Exhibition and Convention Centre in South Korea. Distance decay theories, geographic decay and cognitive decay, are used to inform the analysis. The findings indicate that increasing residents’ engagement with, and knowledge of, convention centres is likely to engender positive perceptions of their impacts. It is suggested that urban policy-makers in many parts of the world could learn from this study and should take residents’ perceptions into account when financing and managing convention centres.