For Immediate Release
October 19, 2011

Contact: Ryan Smith
(919) 645-2676
rsmith@visitRaleigh.com

Raleigh Named ‘America’s Best City’ Bloomsburg’s Businessweek.com Names Capital City Best City in America

(RALEIGH, N.C.) – Raleigh, North Carolina was named “America’s Best City,” beating out large, popular cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Bloomsburg’s Businessweek.com placed Raleigh tops on its list when it came to picking the country’s best city.

Evaluating cities based on a variety of criteria, some of which included quality of life, area schools’ performance and area collegiate and professional sports teams, Businessweek.com named Raleigh as the city that offers it all.

“The Raleigh area is consistently named to every best of list imaginable and this recent accolade by BusinessWeek is just one more feather in our cap,” said Denny Edwards, president and CEO of the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau.

With more than $3 billion in recent redevelopment projects completed, the Raleigh area now boasts a variety of stellar attractions and facilities that appeal to both leisure and business travelers; not to mention add to the quality of life for residents of North Carolina’s Capital City. New projects recently completed as part of a $3 billion Raleigh renaissance include:

Silver LEED Certified Raleigh Convention Center – 500,000 total square feet and state-of-the-art amenities.

City Plaza – This open-air space in the heart of downtown Raleigh hosts numerous festivals, concerts, farmers’ markets and public art instillations.

Raleigh Amphitheater – Known for having more live music venues than any other city in the state, the area’s newest outdoor live music venue, adjacent to the Raleigh Convention Center, offers a 5,500 seating capacity and a stage for national performing artists.

NC Museum of Art – Opened in April 2010, this is one of the most respected art museums in the Southeast with the largest collection of Rodin sculptures in the South. The museum will host the blockbuster exhibition Rembrandt in America Oct. 30 – Jan. 22, 2012, the largest collection of authentic Rembrandt’s ever shown in the United States.

Contemporary Art Museum – North Carolina’s only non-collecting contemporary art museum located in the Warehouse District of downtown Raleigh.

Nature Research Center – A state-of-the-art new wing of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences dedicated to helping connect people with the research that affects our daily lives opening April 20, 2012.

Numerous hotels and restaurants have also opened in the past few years, adding to not only our accommodation portfolio - from luxury to budget friendly - but has also put us on the culinary map as the home to innovative chefs and a commitment to sustainable dining.

“These new tourism projects, coupled with a world-renowned technological and business climate, as well as eight colleges and universities and a public education system rivaling any city in the country, made the Raleigh area the perfect choice for being named America’s Best City,” said Edwards.

The Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau, as the official destination marketing organization of Raleigh and Wake County, accelerates sustainable economic growth and development by increasing visitor and convention business.

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