Stellar Service
The GRCVB Services team works with Wake County hospitality partners to fulfill our goal of making our area the most hospitable county in the world. One of the tools we use to help accomplish this is offering the quarterly Customer Care for the Hospitality Industry course. The next session of this award-winning training program, presented in partnership with Wake Technical Community College, will take place at 1:30pm on Thursday, April 28, from 1:30 to 4:30pm at the Holly Springs Cultural Center. This is a hands-on, interactive class that offers practical tips and techniques in customer service. Participants will share ideas and stories with their peers and gain insight from a diverse group of industry professionals. It’s a great opportunity for either frontline staff or for managers who need and want a “train the trainer” class. To register, click here or call 919.645.2661.
In this issue...
Stellar Service | Awesome April | CAM Opening | Video Update | Marketing Meet-Up | Facebook Merge
Awesome April
April is a big month for sports in Greater Raleigh. Highlights include the Raleigh Rocks Half Marathon (April 10) and the 11th Annual Deep South Classic (April 15-17), which is expected to generate nearly 8,000 room-nights as more than 200 elite girls basketball teams from around the country attend. The ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championships (April 21-22, 24) take place at WakeMed Soccer Park, and the ACC Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships return to Cary Tennis Park from April 22-25.
CAM Opening
Finishing touches are being put on downtown Raleigh’s newest cultural attraction, the Contemporary Art Museum, for its Grand Opening Celebration on April 29. The historic-warehouse-turned-museum will house three galleries, as well as education space dedicated to expanding community-wide adult and youth art and design programming. The 20,000-square-foot building, in the Warehouse District near the Raleigh Convention Center and planned Union Station Transit Center, has two full levels, soaring interior space and two adjacent parking lots plus large and intimate gallery spaces, classrooms and new technology as both an art form and an educational tool. The museum is the state’s only non-collecting contemporary art museum and opens with exhibitions by Dan Steinhilber and Naoko Ito.
Video Update
The Bureau, in conjunction with Raleigh-based new media company Triangle Blvd, continues to produce videos on destination-specific topics ranging from local parks to individual municipalities, montages of dining, entertainment and nightlife, as well as attractions and family-friendly activities. Check out some of the recent videos including restaurant concepts from the Urban Food Group, owners of Porter’s, Coquette, Vivace, Frazier’s and CHOW, the Town of Cary’s Page Walker Arts & History Center and the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Remember, while the videos produced have been cost-free to non-profits and publicly-funded tourism partners, area accommodations, restaurants and other private businesses can also participate in the program through a paid co-op program (a cost-effective marketing opportunity that can help the Bureau showcase the diverse range of area businesses and allow individual properties to use the videos for other in-house marketing efforts). To learn more, contact Director of Marketing Jonathan Freeze at jfreeze@visitRaleigh.com.
Marketing Meet-Up
Some 30 Wake County hospitality partners from hotels and attractions recently gathered at the renovated Wachovia IMAX Theatre at Marbles Kids Museum for the Bureau’s Spring Marketing Update. The first half of the meeting, which highlighted travel trends, a recap of the area’s visitor profiles and statistics on visitor spending and habits, was useful to partners looking for more in-depth understanding of who visits the Wake County area and how to better target area visitors. The second half of the meeting was dedicated to the leisure visitor and what upcoming programs and cooperative advertising opportunities are available in each of the seven leisure categories (Foodie, Fashionista, Adrenaline Junkie, Creative Genius, Lifelong Learner, Free Spirit and Music Maniac). To discuss the low-cost advertising opportunities (which are still being refined for 2011-2012) or to see the PowerPoint presentation, contact Director of Marketing Jonathan Freeze at jfreeze@visitRaleigh.com.
Facebook Merge
The Bureau has made the merge from three Facebook fan pages to one, combining leisure, meeting and sports content there. If you were a fan of either the meeting- or sports-specific Facebook pages, please make sure you become a fan of Greater Raleigh, NC. Also, if you tweet, be sure to follow @visitRaleighPR and @RaleighNCsports. Follow us or be a fan, and you’ll be the first to hear about special offers, ticket giveaways or new events—then pass along these opportunities to your visiting guests.
