Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Recent Honors And Awards To San Francisco

2010

June 2010 – The readers of Successful Meetings selected the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau to receive the magazine’s Pinnacle Award for providing outstanding service in their meeting programs.  This is the 19th time that San Francisco has received this award.

May 2010 – Fast Company magazine places San Francisco on the Fast Cities honor roll for “blending the best and boldest ideas.” San Francisco was specifically cited for open-source government and initiatives to use social media to make city services work better.

May 2010 – San Francisco came in with the leanest profile in a recent ranking of “America’s Fattest Cities” by Men’s Health magazine. The city tied with Burlington, VT with an A+ score for the smallest percentage of people who are overweight, with type 2 diabetes and other factors.

April 2010 – San Francisco clocks in as #3 in a Real Simple magazine survey of “21 Top Time-Saving Cities in America.” Rankings in five categories (Getting Around, Health and Safety, Information and Technology, Green Time-Savers and Lifestyle) placed San Francisco just behind Seattle and Portland.

April 2010 – AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants since April 2000, received U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Silver Certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Existing Buildings, Operations and Maintenance (EBO&M). This LEED Silver Certification for an existing building makes AT&T Park the first major league ballpark to receive this honor.

2009
October 2009 – The readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine voted San Francisco Best U.S. City in their annual Readers’ Choice Awards; San Francisco has been ranked #1 19 out of 20 years and this is the 17th consecutive year that the city has been honored with the Best U.S. City award.

October 2009 – Cited for its significant contribution to the local economy and the recent formation of the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District, the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau received an Ebbie (Excellence in Business) Economic Development Award from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

September 2009 – San Francisco named one of “The World’s Happiest Cities” in an article posted Sept. 2, 2009 on Forbes.com. San Francisco, which ranks seventh out of 10 listed cities, is the only city in North America to be included in what the magazine calls “urban centers closely associated with unmitigated joy.”

July 2009 – Corporate & Incentive Travel honors San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau with magazine’s 2009 Award of Excellence. Bureaus voted to receive this coveted honor were selected by subscribers who voted for those that best served their meetings and/or incentive programs.

June 2009 – The SFCVB has won Meetings & Conventions magazine’s “Gold Service Award” for the 22nd time.

June 2009 – TripAdvisor’s survey of more than 3,400 U.S. respondents placed San Francisco in second place after New York City for favorite city honors.

June 2009 – Dwell magazine names the International Terminal at San Francisco International Airport the best in the United States in its June issue.

May 2009 – Fast Company magazine places San Francisco on the Fast Cities honor roll for “exemplary initiatives that are improving neighborhoods, transforming lives, and helping build better, faster cities for the future.”

May 2009 – San Francisco is named Favorite Domestic Destination in the 2009 Gay.com Travel Awards poll. More than 25,000 votes were cast.

April 2009 – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Pacific Southwest Region 9 awarded SMG and The Moscone Center the prestigious 2009 Environmental Achievement Award for distinguishing itself as a sustainable building that has helped to protect the environment.

March 2009 – A study commissioned by Nalgene, placed San Francisco in the number one slot as “America’s least wasteful city.” Twenty-three waste focused behaviors ranging from turning off the lights when leaving the room to using public transit were assessed in the survey which polled 3,750 individuals in the top 25 largest U.S. cities

March 2009 – Restaurants at San Francisco International Airport were rated the best in the United States by readers of Inside Flyer in a poll commissioned by Airport Revenue News.

2008

October 2008 – Community Marketing, Inc. (CMI), the San Francisco-based market research and communications firm reports the results of its 13th annual LGBT Tourism Study. San Francisco placed third for leisure travel and fifth for business travel; however, its high rankings in both categories pushed it to second place for overall most-visited destination.

October 2008 – The readers of The Out Traveler tapped San Francisco for second place “Domestic Destination” honors (Silver) in their fourth annual Readers’ Choice poll.

August 2008 – Subscribers to Insurance & Financial Meetings Management named the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau a winner in the 11th World Class Awards.

July 2008 – San Francisco was named the most “walkable” city in the nation by the Web site WalkScore.com. The city scored 86 out of 100 based on residents’ proximity to services and amenities. New York was second with 83 and Boston third with 79.

July 2008 – San Francisco International Airport was named as the Best Airport in North America based on passenger survey results released in July 2008 by Skytrax, the aviation industry’s leading independent quality research organization.

July 2008 – Travel + Leisure Magazine – San Francisco was named the #2 city in the United States and Canada and the #10 city in the world in T+L’s World’s Best Awards 2008 readers’ survey. San Francisco has been ranked in the #1 or #2 spot on the list of Top Cities in the United States and Canada for the past 13 years since the magazine started the readers’ poll in 1996. Three local hotels were also among the top 100: Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco; The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, and Mandarin Oriental, San Francisco. Virgin America, San Francisco’s “hometown airline” based at San Francisco International Airport, was named Best Domestic Airline for the first time.

June 2008 – As one of the TravelAge West Editor’s Pick Award nominees, San Francisco received the 2008 WAVE (Western Agents Votes of Excellence) Award for Best U.S. City for an Urban Vacation. More than 125 companies, individuals and destinations were recognized by the readers of TravelAge West in 47 categories spanning the cruise, tour operator, airline, hotel and resort and destination fields.

June 2008 — Forbes.com ranks San Francisco number six in its “America’s 10 Cleanest Cities.” It writes that the City ranks in the top five in waste-management spending and water quality.

May 2008 – A special report posted on Forbes.com ranked San Francisco as America’s “best city for the outdoors” based on research from Trust for Public Land, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. The ranking also included data such as spending per resident, park land as a percentage of city land, number of recreation facilities, precipitation, sunshine, temperature extremes and air quality.

June 2008 – In an annual survey by deodorant maker Old Spice, San Francisco upheld its reputation as the “cool, grey city of love,” ranking 100th as the “least sweaty city.”

May 2008 – San Francisco bested Seattle as the fittest of America’s most populous cities according to a new program and report released May 29, 2008 by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The ACSM American Fitness Index(tm) ranked San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area number 1 based on figures related to healthy lifestyles and physical activities. The Bay Area scored above average on personal health indicators such as the percentage of residents who exercise regularly.

May 2008 – AT&T Park recognized as 2008 Sports Facility of the Year in the inaugural Sports Business Awards sponsored by SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily. AT&T Park was chosen from four nominees and was cited for “being one of the most beautiful ballparks in all of baseball,” and one of the “most versatile and innovative. The home of the San Francisco Giants, AT&T Park was also the location of more than 400 events in 2007 including the 2007 All-Star Game.

March 2008 – San Francisco is the second greenest U.S. city according to Popular Science. The March 2008 issue names “America’s 50 Greenest Cities,” ranked on renewable energy, transportation and air quality, green buildings and public spaces, and recycling. Moscone Center was singled out for its solar panel installation.

2007

October 2007 – Based on 60,000 votes from residents and visitors, 25 U.S. cities were ranked by Headline News, Travel + Leisure and CNN.com in the America’s Favorite Cities poll. San Francisco ranked first in the Notable Neighborhoods cateogry; second in the Diversity, Worldly and Ethnic Food categories, and third in the Home Design category.

October 2007 – The American Planning Association (APA) designated North Beach as one of 10 Great Neighborhoods. Each year as part of its Great Places in America program, APA selects locales which exemplify exceptional character and highlight the role planners and planning play in creating communities of lasting value. North Beach was selected for its commitment to ethnic, cultural and economic diversity as well as sensible planning to enhance sustainability.

August 2007 – Forbes.com in their seventh annual “Best Cities for Singles” report named San Francisco the No. 1 city. Up from fourth place in 2006, the city ranked first for culture and received high marks for number of singles, nightlife, online dating and “cool.”

2006

December 2006 – The Urban Institute, in a first-of-its-kind comprehensive statistical portrait of cultural vitality, ranks San Francisco No. 1 in three of seven measures: non-profit organizations, artist jobs and employment in commercial and non-profit arts establishments. In creating this “portrait,” researchers scanned data from the nation’s 61 largest metropolitan areas to “illuminate the intersection of arts, culture and community well-being.”

December 2006 – A new national survey by Harris Interactive, Travel Industry Association and Witeck-Coombs Communications, names San Francisco the top gay-friendly destination in a group 0f 21 destinations. The national online survey was conducted among 2,020 self-identified U.S. GLBT travelers (ages 21 and older) and 1,010 U.S. adults who self-identified as heterosexual who had taken at least one leisure trip in the last 12 months.

October 2006 – Writers at CityBloc.com, one of the largest online sources for demographic and statistical information on U.S. cities, rates San Francisco International Airport the “Best Airport in North America,” citing a “combination of great shopping and restaurants with excellent transportation links.”

September 2006 – Executive Travel magazine readers name San Francisco winner of the 2006 Executive Travel Leading Edge Award. San Francisco was voted Best Domestic City for a Three Day Weekend over all of her competitors around the world. Readers nominated winners in 65 categories in an open format ballot.

August 2006 – Corporate & Incentive Travel honors San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau with magazine’s 2006 Award of Excellence. Bureaus voted to receive this coveted honor were selected by subscribers who voted for those that best served their meetings and/or incentive programs.

May, 2006 – The special issue of Reader’s Digest celebrating America’s 100 Best names San Francisco the “best pet-friendly” city based on input from animal lovers at pet travel resource petsonthego.com. San Francisco was praised for “hotels, restaurants and parks (that) welcome pets, while the people embrace them.”

April, 2006 – Conde Nast Traveler dubs the new de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park one of the “The new seven wonders” in a cover story noting that “great architecture doesn’t just turn heads, it determines where we’re heading” adding that the Herzog & de Meuron-designed structure is “full of clever flourishes that work with, rather that against, the landscape.”

January 2006 – The membership of the North American Travel Journalists Association presented a Five-Star Award to San Francisco for “Most Hospitable City.”

January, 2006 – The Washington Post names the centennial of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake seventh of the top 10 of the “biggest, busiest, most eventful celebrations going on worldwide in 2006.”

January 2006 – Men’s Health magazine named San Francisco “Healthiest City in America 2005.”

2005

December 2005 – Executive Travel magazine named San Francisco International Airport the Best Airport in the United States in its annual “Best of Executive Travel” awards.

November 2005 – The readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine voted San Francisco the #1 travel destination in the United States in the annual Readers’ Choice Awards. This is the 17th of 18 years, and the 13th consecutive year that San Francisco has been designated “Best City in the U.S.”

November 2005 – The Out Traveler, “The Standard of Gay Travel,” named San Francisco Pride, held every June, the Best Gay Event in the United States. According to the magazine, “Attending the gayest week in one of the gayest U.S. cities is like making a pilgrimage to Mecca.” The magazine named San Francisco the #2 Best U.S. City.

October 2005 – The readers of MeetingNews pick the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau as a winner of the MeetingNews Planner’s Choice Awards, which honors excellence in convention and visitors bureaus. More than 50,000 meeting, convention and incentive travel planners who read MeetingNews were asked to select organizations based on the quality of services provided.

July 2005 – San Francisco ranks among the top five cleanest cities in the U.S. in Reader’s Digest’s first ranking of American’s Cleanest Cities in its July issue. San Francisco was cited for its “environmentally conscious” residents, a proactive Department of the Environment and a public transit system that leads the way with clean air vehicles. San Francisco scored a perfect 50 for its drinking water and also ranked high for its air quality.

June 2005 – Runner’s World names San Francisco the #1 running city in the U.S. From a list of 50 cities based on population and performance in a 2004 nationwide survey of jogging participation conducted by the market research firm Claritas, editors then tabulated the number of running clubs and races in the largest U.S. cities. Other factors considered included how much park area is available in each city for runners, average precipitation levels and temps compared to the competition, crime rates, demographic studies tracking the popularity of running in each of the 25 finalists and a poll of 1,300 runners.

June 2005 – SustainLane.com ranks San Francisco the #1 most sustainable city in the United States. The SustainLane rankings focus on healthy regional economic development, vibrant communities and quality of life measurements.

March 2005 – San Francisco was named among the Top 10 Best U.S. Walking Cities by the American Podiatric Medical Association in its third annual survey which measures 200 cities on three walking conducive categories: healthy lifestyles, modes of transportation to and from work and involvement in fitness and sport activities. San Francisco ranked second below Arlington, VA.

January 2005 – The readers of Meetings West magazine selected San Francisco as the “Best Vacation Spot” in the publication’s annual Planners’ Best Bet awards.

January 2005 – The membership of the North American Travel Journalists Association presented a Five-Star Award to San Francisco for “Best North American Destination.”

2004

October 2004 – Motorcyclist Magazine names San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area as the greatest place in America to ride a motorcycle. “There can be only one Best Motorcycling City, and among all the United States of America’s roughly 19,355 incorporated burgs, you can’t beat San Francisco,” the magazine stated.

August 2004 – Out & About, PlanetOut.com and Gay.com named San Francisco one of the “Top 10 U.S. gay shopping cities.”

June 2004 – San Francisco is named “the rockingest city in the U.S.A.,” according to a study by Scarborough Research, surveying more than 200,000 people. More San Franciscans go to rock concerts than any other city in the country.