Big news! The 2023 Official Visitors Guide to Raleigh, Cary and Wake County is off the press and ready to circulate to visitors, clients, partners and stakeholders.

It's especially big news this year because the last guide GRCVB published went to press in April 2020, thus (because of the pandemic and its impacts) production of a new edition had been suspended until now. 

“I always think of the Visitors Guide as a giant puzzle," said Karen DeSollar, creative director at GRCVB and project manager for the guide. "It involves bringing hundreds, if not thousands, of snippets of editorial and photography content together to craft the book.

“We work hard to bring as much representation from as many different hospitality partners as we can into the book to give the visitor a well-rounded picture of visiting Wake County. However with over 1,400 restaurants and our hundreds of attractions, it's virtually impossible to include everyone in 60 pages. 

“This guide is the first time we have included QR codes with each article to point readers to extended content on visitRaleigh.com. Hopefully they will encounter many other partner listings and options by scanning through to the website.” 

The GRCVB team works with publisher Compass Media to produce the annual guide, and the process takes about six months. It began last summer with ad sales that extended into September. In early fall we finalized development of the editorial content, then the book moved into the design phase in November.

The proofs were checked and the paper ordered before Christmas, and the ink started flowing in early January. The 100,000 guides are safely warehoused now and are readily available to anyone who wants one.

Here are a few things for you to know about this version:

  • For the second time in recent history, there are two cover options. The first features a group of visitors in the wintertime (visiting the Illuminate Art Walk) in downtown Raleigh. That photo was taken by Scott Scaggs from Avenir Bold.
  • The second is a late summer view from the Neuse River Greenway Trail and was taken by GRCVB's senior content marketing manager Michael Robson. (2023 is North Carolina's Year of the Trail.)
  • QR codes appear at the bottom of every article pointing to more information on visitRaleigh.com.
  • Every municipality surrounding Raleigh is represented with either one or two pages of official information they helped to curate for area visitors.
  • Many area business partners are represented by ads in this edition. "We are so very grateful to those who purchased ad space in the guide," said DeSollar. "That helps not only to place the business or attraction in front of visitors, but it also shows tangible support of the CVB in its ongoing mission to move more potential visitors across our county lines."
  • The Bureau's internal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee weighed-in to make sure that area diversity is being represented throughout the guide in editorial content.

Online version

The online version is available at raleighvisitorsguide.com. One of the things we like about the digital version is that each article is available to be linked by itself—convenient if you would like to send one individually to guests or customers.

Distribution