Greater Raleigh Tourism e-News
Welcome to the Greater Raleigh Tourism e-News … presented by the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau (GRCVB). Please let us know about any news pertaining to Wake County's billion dollar visitor industry for possible inclusion in future issues.
IN VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9:
Comings and Goings
Performing Arts Center Proves Raleigh's Renaissance A Winner
Raleigh Boasts Three of Most Popular Museums and Historic Sites
Glenwood South Featured in The New York Times
Angus Barn a Southern Living Reader's Choice
Nature Research Center Receives $500,000 from NASA
Greater Raleigh Reaps Exposure from Good Housekeeping Sweepstakes
2006 Destination and Cooperative Marketing Opportunities
Road Warriors
Sales Slate
Sports Headlines
10 Travel Trends to Watch in 2006
Events Through Next Month
Comings and Goings
Malinda Pettaway and Ami Patel have joined the CVB's sales staff.
Pettaway is a national sales manager with an emphasis on the Carolinas. Her primary focus is market segments that will utilize the new Raleigh Convention Center including state, regional and national associations, government and corporate. Previously, she worked for nine years as a sales manager at the Hilton North Raleigh.
Patel is the new sales coordinator with an emphasis on all groups under 50 rooms peak, including association, corporate, government, wedding, reunion and motorcoach. She spent also two years at the Hilton North Raleigh as a sales manager for the transient market. Prior to that post, Patel worked with Renaissance Hotels in Portsmouth, Va., where she was junior sales manager, group rooms coordinator and front office supervisor.
Meanwhile, sales coordinator Kathleen Murphy is returning to her roots by taking a job with the City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department and pursuing a master's degree at N.C. State.
Performing Arts Center Proves Raleigh's Renaissance A Winner
February marked the fifth anniversary of the re-opening of the facility now known as the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, and city leaders say the project's overwhelming success bodes well for the next wave of Raleigh debuts - including the new Fayetteville Street and Raleigh Convention Center. With the additions of Meymandi Concert Hall, Fletcher Opera Theatre and Kennedy Theatre, the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts now welcomes more than one million theater attendees each season.
In a telling triple play, the expansion has fostered growth three times over. In 2001, the stand-alone Memorial Auditorium hosted around 250 events a year, including four touring shows from Broadway Series South. Now, the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts has more than tripled its events to 900 a year. Further, Broadway Series South now brings 14 shows to Raleigh each season; and net revenue has roughly tripled from about $1 million to $2.8 million for all venues and programming.
The opening of Meymandi Concert Hall provided the N.C. Symphony with a place to call home, freeing up Memorial Auditorium's schedule for Broadway shows as well as various productions including Carolina Ballet and N.C. Theatre performances. On the opposite end, the Fletcher Opera Theatre provides a stage for performances by such groups as Raleigh Little Theatre, PineCone and Raleigh Chamber Music Guild.
Raleigh Boasts Three of Most Popular Museums and Historic Sites
Biltmore Estate is once again the most popular of North Carolina's 385 public and private museums and historic sites, according to a statewide survey conducted by Carolina Publishing Associates, publishers of the annual "Carolina Heritage Guide" and "Carolina Field Trips" magazine. Raleigh is the only destination with more than one attraction among the Top 10 with the No. 2 N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, No. 5 N.C. Museum of History and No. 8 N.C. Museum of Art.
Glenwood South Featured in The New York Times
The New York Times featured the Glenwood South neighborhood in the February 12 "Surfacing" feature in the travel section. Five years ago, the Glenwood South neighborhood, a warehouse-wholesale district a half-dozen blocks northwest of the State Capitol, was deserted after 5:00 p.m., its main artery, Glenwood Avenue, merely a quick way to get home or to the airport. Today, the sounds you hear are jazz, Celtic, salsa and rock emanating from nearly a dozen venues, as this eight-block area has become a hive of restaurants, bars, boutiques and now luxury housing. Read more.
Angus Barn a Southern Living Reader's Choice
In the February issue of "Southern Living," the magazine announces its 2005 Readers' Choice Awards. The "Best of the South" honorees included the Angus Barn as of the "close picks" in the Splurge Restaurant category.
Nature Research Center Receives $500,000 from NASA
The N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences received a big boost to its plans for a Space & Earth Observation wing in the Nature Research Center when a federal earmark worth $500,000 from NASA was recently approved. Slated to open in December 2008, the Museum's planned 95,000-square-foot expansion will educate more than 200,000 annual visitors using a combination of innovative exhibits, informative programs, hands-on labs and live encounters with scientists active in current environmental research.
Greater Raleigh Reaps Exposure from Good Housekeeping Sweepstakes
The Bureau joined other in-state industry partners to provide getaway packages for a comprehensive print and online sweepstakes with N.C. Tourism and Good Housekeeping magazine. Along with being promoted in the March issue of Good Housekeeping, the sweepstakes was touted on ghtravel.com, goodhousekeepingseal.com and VisitNC.com web sites.
2006 Destination and Cooperative Marketing Opportunities There are many ways to leverage CVB programs and assist your business goals through the area's billion dollar visitor industry. Many beneficial cooperative partnerships have been developed that offer ways to join forces with CVB campaigns via online, magazine and guidebook advertising with participation rates starting from $250. The Bureau has been able to negotiate unprecedented affordable rates in Southern Living and Our State Magazine, not to mention six online endeavors and four new opportunities to advertise on VisitRaleigh.com. Sign-ups are taking place for the summer online concert campaign and 2007 N.C. Travel Guide.
For more information about these co-op marketing opportunities, please contact the Bureau's director of partnership and tourism marketing Shawn Braden at 919-645-2663 or sbraden@visitraleigh.com.
Road Warriors
Bureau staff prospected for new business and pursued 
professional development at:
- Association for Convention Operations Management Convention in Philadelphia
- Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Professional Education Conference in Charlotte
- Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia
- Destination Marketing Association International Tradeshow in DC
- American Society of Association Executives DC Speakers Series
- Association of Meeting Professionals DC
- Potomac Chapter of MPI-DC
- PCMA-Capital Chapter Meeting DC
- Meeting News Southeast Marketplace in Atlanta
- MPI-Carolinas Chapter meeting
- NC Society of Government Meeting Planners
- Association Executives of North Carolina Charlotte and Raleigh meetings
Sales Slate
The sales staff recently submitted formal proposals for more than $5.5 million of future business (2008 Automated Meter Reading Association, 2008/2009 SE Greenhouse Conference and Tradeshow, 2009/2010 N.C. State Firemen's Association and 2010 Carolina Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors).
It conducted outside sales calls with the likes of National Association of Environmental Professionals, Electric Power Research Institute, Carrier Carolinas, Carolinas Electrical Contractors, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities, Jack Henry & Associates, Columbia Beauty Supply, Duke Energy, Helms Briscoe, Human Rights Campaign, Inis Cairde Dance Festival, International Non-Woven Textiles Association, RBC Centura, N.C. Association of Electric Cooperatives, 103.9 Light, N.C.Central University, Shaw University-Divinity School, American Legion, American Chemical Society, Mathematics Society of America, Courtesy Associates, The Roberts Group, American Pharmacists Association, RTP Foundation, Wake County Economic Development, NCAED, NC Military Business Center, N.C. State Bar, Administrative Office of the Courts, Human Rights Campaign, Kappa Kappa Psi and Rex Healthcare.
Sports Headlines
Meanwhile, the sports squad hosted a site visit by the United States Fastpitch Association, which might bring its Eastern Nationals to Cary's Thomas Brooks Park in Summer 2006. The Bureau partnered with Capital Area Soccer League, N.C. Youth Soccer Association and the City of Wilson to formally bid on the 2008 USYSA Regional III Soccer Championship in a Feb. 23 presentation in Houston. The event would generated about 20,000 hotel room nights and approximately $4 to $5 million in estimated economic impact for the region.
Travel Trends: YPB&R Offers 10 Travel Trends to Watch in 2006
Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R), have made a list of 10 U.S. travel industry trends worth watching in 2006: 
- Leisure travel will continue to outpace business travel;
- More travelers will select cruises and timeshares as alternatives to conventional lodging;
- Activities that promote stress reduction will gain popularity;
- Meetings and conventions will drive the recovery of business travel;
- High-speed Internet access will increasingly become a standard traveler demand, not an option;
- Air travel will remain affordable;
- Lodging rates will rise;
- Travel agents will continue to become sellers of "complex" and "high-risk" travel products and services;
- Consumers' use of the Internet will continue to reinvent the distribution travel services, and
- Transparent pricing will underscore the urgent need for brand clarity.
   |
