Tourism Talk blog

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...

The 2019 GRCVB Annual Meeting, “Why Tourism Matters,” is in the books. Here are some scenes from our favorite day of the year. The theme What we hoped our guests would take away from this event was summarized in the theme—Why Tourism Matters—specifically how visitors and...

GRCVB released 2018 tourism numbers last week with some impressive results. Wake County welcomed 16.8 million visitors in 2018, an increase of 4.8% over 2017. These visitors who traveled to Wake County spent $2.7 billion, an increase of 7.2% over 2017. Both the numbers of visitors and visitor

You may not be aware that GRCVB hosts several interns in our Services and Sales Departments each summer. These enterprising students help our staff with logistics and prospecting or serving groups that arrive as well as participate in all kinds of projects, such as “Celebrate Services...

It’s the time of year when we release the Official Media Kit for 2019‒2020, a collection of GRCVB-sanctioned avenues to promote your business or organization to potential visitors. Just as a reminder, every hospitality partner in the county already gets free, year-round exposure from...

If you haven’t had a chance yet, you still have a few days to register for GRCVB’s Annual Meeting on Wed., Aug. 21, 2019, at the Raleigh Convention Center. (Registration closes on Wed., Aug. 14, 2019). We hope you have noticed that the theme of the ticketed luncheon is “Why...

By now, pretty much everyone has heard of esports, right? It’s the fastest-growing sports market in the world. Sometimes it feels as if esports is taking over the world! But in the events industry, esports is still a relative baby. A newcomer to the scene. So much rapid growth, so much...

The Wake County Destination Strategic Plan (DSP) is garnering international attention. The Destinations International Annual Convention is happening this week in St. Louis, where over 1,400 representatives from convention and visitors bureaus from around the world will be attending. I have been

Part of our job at GRCVB, specifically in the Marketing and Communications Department, is to create and maintain the destination photo library. Over the last 10+ years, we have accumulated more than 30,000 new images of Wake County, of area hospitality partner locations and venues, of events and

Invitations for the 2019 GRCVB Annual Meeting are in the mail queue (both snail mail and email). If you haven’t gotten yours already, be watching for it to appear in the next few days. We love Annual Meeting season around here because it’s our chance to show area hospitality partners,...