Author: Jonathan Freeze, CDME

Jonathan Freeze, CDME, has built a career in the marketing of places, leading the Greater Raleigh CVB's marketing efforts since 2008. Though a firm believer in the science of marketing, Jonathan also began his career as a writer and creative wordsmith. Recently he contributed an award-winning chapter recounting destination stewardship work in Raleigh to the book Tourism Microentrepreneurship (Emerald Publishing). Learn more

Each year since revamping its community engagement strategies officially in 2018, GRCVB has arranged its communications with local community stakeholders around annual themes of import, and this year is no different. In calendar years 2019 and 2020, Bureau staff created and implemented a multilevel
One of the important responsibilities that GRCVB bears for Wake County is the collection and constant monitoring of tourism-related statistics. As you can imagine during the past year, we have seen some jubilant highs and jarring lows as tourism numbers, across the board, have been reported. As is
As announced in the GRCVB Annual Meeting on Aug. 26 and further outlined in our Sept. 30 Coronavirus Briefing, the Bureau is currently investing in two major photo/video projects around Wake County, to respond to special needs being felt by the destination’s customers as well as by our area...
Once a year or so, I overhear someone say that the Raleigh area doesn't have a brand. Having been project manager for development of the Raleigh, N.C., Destination Brand Strategy in 2014-2015, however, I know that we have at least one brand platform countywide! The problem is that we...
In past posts, we’ve covered visitor profile research and shared stats about Raleigh area visitors’ current makeup (studied biennially by GRCVB); we’ve also covered the economic significance of producing visitor-friendly festivals/events here and how economic impacts can be...
Back in 2015, GRCVB first expanded its promotion of signature experiences for visitors of all types, developing a Things to Do webpage that showcased a curated collection of personal tours and hands-on encounters in Raleigh/Wake County. All these experiences were suited for small groups (e.g.,