Long before N.C. began to see an easing of COVID-19 restrictions, hospitality partners throughout Raleigh and Wake County responded to preserve their business/customer relationships in numerous ways and have remained vigilant, ensuring the future of area tourism in 2020 and beyond. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, GRCVB relied heavily on its partners to help us stay abreast of all openings, closings and regular updates to the 4,000 hospitality businesses throughout the area. Now, more than ever, we still need your help in maintaining our destination database through our Partner Information eXchange Login (PIXL, for short).

For the uninitiated, PIXL is GRCVB's web-based platform that allows hospitality partners access to their specific business/organization listing on visitRaleigh.com. That complimentary listing, which links through to the businesses' own sites, enables partners to share detailed information, images, videos, social media posts and new events with area visitors. GRCVB also utilizes these listings in weekly content shared to drive traffic and visitor interest to both visitRaleigh.com and the tagged businesses in each post, in ongoing public relations tactics, to answer visitors' questions at the official Visitor Information Center etc. Hotels, meeting sites and service providers can further utilize PIXL to respond to RFPs from incoming convention and sports groups.

Future meeting/sports event planners and leisure travelers have a myriad of questions regarding how to travel here safely and the standards that partners are implementing moving forward. To consolidate our answers into one channel, GRCVB has updated PIXL to allow area businesses/organizations to inform the public which safe practices they are currently following. These "amenities" include safe practices like reduced business occupancies, social distancing space layouts or contact barriers installed, as well as more nuanced practices or training programs specifically for restaurants, hotels or attractions (including Count On Me NC certification, which itself "checks many boxes").

GRCVB is already tracking and sharing "the rules" statewide as released by our Governor's Office, emergency management and public health officials; however, as individual businesses/industries may interpret and apply these differently (or "go the extra mile" in many cases), the Bureau can provide the most accurate tourism information about the area only by collecting data from each establishment, thanks to your continued help.

To update your listing's Safe Practices amenities:

• Login to PIXL.
• On the left-hand menu, select Profile, then Accounts.
• Select the red drop-down arrow next to your listing name, then click Manage Amenities.
• In the sub-menu along the left-hand side, find and click on Safe Practices.

There, you can mark which practices your business is currently using and submit. Please note that only practices marked "Yes" will show on a businesses' website listing. A "No" response will not be publicly seen. If you are deploying a safety practice that is not noted within these amenities, you may reach out to us here for possible inclusion by our staff.

To further add to these choices, PIXL now has a section for COVID-19-related safety standards and certifications as well. These range from corporate/national hotel cleanliness standards like Hilton CleanStay with Lysol Protection and American Hotel and Lodging Association's Safe Stay to generally recommended statewide initiatives like Count On Me NC. For further information on the available resources and certifications, visit GRCVB's COVID-19 response page on Resources for Hospitality Business Owners and Employees.

Raleigh/Wake County will soon showcase to prospective visitors and even locals that it is again a destination that can be safely visited, even during a time of global uncertainties. With your help, GRCVB can further summarize, publicize and broadcast our combined efforts to remain clean for all travelers, safe for business travel and smart for event planners moving forward. The entire Bureau staff looks forward to welcoming the return of most travel bookings, as soon as your data is submitted and the easing of coronavirus restrictions is complete.

For a general intro to utilizing PIXL (to make updates to your listing including its images, contacts or calendar of events submissions), see our introductory blog post on PIXL. If you do not currently have PIXL access to your visitRaleigh.com listings or need help resetting your password, you may contact assistant marketing manager Andrew H. Baker at abaker@visitRaleigh.com.