New York and London remain the most popular destinations for roadshows, although due to the fall in in-person roadshow activity both cities have had fewer companies visit them this year. New York has seen a drop from 74.2 percent of companies visiting to 68.2 percent, while London has seen a fall from 66.3 percent to 53.7 percent. Another consequence of the fall in activity this year is that these two cities are the only destinations visited by a majority of our survey respondents.
There are few notable changes from 2019 to the top 20 most-visited cities. Los Angeles has moved up from ninth to sixth place, Zurich, Edinburgh, Geneva and Stockholm have all dropped down the table, and Dallas has entered the list in 19th place.
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Although in-person roadshow activity was curtailed this year, nevertheless more than eight in 10 North American firms went on the road to New York, a fall of less than 2 percentage points from 2019. Almost two thirds of companies in the region have visited Boston, and San Francisco remains the third-most popular destination for North American companies.
The only notable change from 2019 is the rise of Los Angeles as a destination at the expense of Chicago, Toronto and London. The UK capital remains the only city outside of the region to be featured in the top 10 most-visited destinations by North American companies.
More than 85 percent of European companies visited London on in-person roadshows this year, a fall of less than 2 percentage points on the previous year. New York is the second-most visited city, with the number of European companies visiting dropping from 74 percent to 71.4 percent. Paris and Frankfurt make up the four cities visited by a majority of European companies this year.
Three other North American cities appear in the European top 10: Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. Amsterdam features again, replacing Toronto after dropping out of the top 10 in 2019.
Singapore and Hong Kong remain the top two cities visited by Asian companies, as well as the only cities that have been visited by a majority for in-person roadshows. Singapore has seen the number of Asian companies visiting this year drop by 4.5 percentage points on 2019, while Hong Kong’s Asian visitors have fallen by 13.8 percentage points.
London was visited by more than four in 10 Asian companies while New York was visited by just over a quarter. Three Asian cities are new to the top 10 this year: Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Taipei. Kuala Lumpur is the fifth-most visited city by Asian firms, with more than one in five visiting this year.
We asked respondents to our survey to state their favorite roadshow destination. London tops the list, followed by New York, Boston, Singapore and Toronto. Here is a selection of some of the comments IROs made about these cities.
