Advantages of place as perceived by Sunbelt promoters

A questionnaire was sent to 104 Chamber of Commerce executives in states and cities in the South and Southwest to evaluate the factors they perceive to be important in recruiting business and industrial migrants from the North. 81 respondents rates 33 locational factors on a scale of 1 to 5. Results show variation in the perceived importance of factors between Southeast, South Central, and Southwest states and the Border states. Patterns of perceived competition among cities reveal that Border cities view Southern cities as their most important competitors but Southern cities see their major competitors as other rapidly growing Southern cities. Large cities do not see smaller cities as competitors with the exception of the "high tech" research centers such as Raleigh, North Carolina.