Tourism Talk blog

Leaders in the hospitality sector and local community are hosting weekly conference calls with updates related to the COVID-19 crisis. Here is a summary of the call from Thurs., March 26, 2020 (or if you prefer to listen to the full recording, please find it here)... Lynn Minges, president and CEO,

To assist hospitality business partners and others affected by the COVID-19 crisis in Wake County, GRCVB, alongside the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association (NCRLA), is hosting weekly conference call briefings with information relevant to all of us during this time. The first of these

We don't know if you have noticed, but there's not a lot of employee turnover at GRCVB. It has been awhile since we added it up, but we must have hundreds of years of collective experience at the Bureau. There are about 20 members of our staff who have been here at least 10 years and some...

Substantial progress has occurred over the past month addressing the priorities of the Wake County Destination Strategic Plan (DSP). Funding for an Indoor Sports Complex approved The Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Raleigh City Council approved annual funding of $2.36 million over the

Earlier this week in Tourism Talk, we mentioned that GRCVB along with several local allies will be traveling to Austin, Texas, in March to represent Raleigh at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2020. In case you missed it, here is information that was released to the press on Tues., Feb. 25, 2020. Raleigh

Several members of the GRCVB team will again be traveling to Austin, Texas, from March 15–18, 2020, along with a team of economic development allies representing Wake County, to exhibit at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Trade Show. This will be the third year this group has...

You may remember that, in Nov. 2019, GRCVB launched its All Access Wake County initiative, which purposes: to educate and train Wake County hospitality partners with information they can use immediately and long-term to provide effective servicing to guests with accessibility challenges; to call

Just in case you missed it (ICYMI), we're passing along this information that GRCVB shared with the media in recent weeks. The City of Raleigh has released a Request For Interest (RFI) about a new convention hotel on two pieces of real estate primed for development in downtown Raleigh. City of

The results are in, and Wake County hotels had a very strong 2019. Hotel occupancy ran 73.8%, up 5% over 2018; our occupancy rate outperformed the state average of 65.6% and the national average of 66.1%. The county average daily rate for the year finished at $109.22, up 2.5%, while rooms

If you live or work in downtown Raleigh, you are familiar with and may be reliant on the R-LINE, the free, hybrid-electric, circulator bus service. When we're promoting downtown as a destination for leisure and meeting/convention visitors, we often include mention of the R-LINE, which makes...