While the massive convention centers and copious hotel space in cities like New York, Chicago and Orlando will continue to attract business conferences, corporate event planners start to seek out smaller, less-expensive towns for a handful of helpful reasons.

Considered “secondary cities,” these locations campaign for businesses’ business by promoting not only state-of-the-art facilities, but also charming attributes as vacation destinations. Such cities, including San Antonio, Denver, Nashville and St. Louis, know bringing in big business contributes greatly to the local economy.

Cost is one of the main reasons to look to secondary cities: Smaller metropolises are simply cheaper for the business budget in terms of hotel rooms, off-site restaurants and recreational activities. Businesses may also find some tourism boards and hospitality organizations are willing to foster deals to bring a major event to their town.

Another reason to branch out is availability: Booking event space and a block of hotel rooms for an event often must be done months if not years in advance, which makes it difficult to guarantee space in a big city unless advance preparation is involved.

Abroad, major meeting destinations like Stockholm and Barcelona are being overlooked for calmer, cheaper parts of the country, like Gothenburg, Sweden, and Seville, Spain.