Tourism Talk blog

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

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

As 2019 came to end, GRCVB renewed its accreditation with the CVB industry association, Washington, D.C.-based Destinations International. GRCVB has represented the Raleigh area as a destination since 1986 and first achieved global accreditation through the Destination Marketing Accreditation

If you attended “All Access Wake County” on Nov. 18, you know that accessibility is an important priority for GRCVB right now. You might also have noticed that, since July, visitRaleigh.com has been undergoing a certification process for AudioEye, a tool that provides valuable...

Last year I wrote about the philosophy behind developing festival/event tourism in our area and plugging data into a cycle of improvement that leads to more positive impacts from these events. This week I want to be more specific about how GRCVB can help area festival/event organizers who are

As we speak about the impact tourism has on broader economic development for our region, that notion is no more evident than in our international tourism efforts. That said, in early October I spent a week overseas for a series of events in Paris and London in support of our nonstop flights to RDU