Tourism Talk blog

Everybody loves a “Year in Review” list. Here are our picks for the top 10 highlights in Wake County tourism for 2019 (YMMV). 10] The opening of new, high-profile restaurants helmed by celebrity chefs Jolie Scott Crawford—a five-time James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best...

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

If you're reading this Tourism Talk blog post, you most likely received it through our Tourism Talk E-newsletter, which goes out to partners throughout Wake County each Mon. morning. And if you've been a partner with GRCVB for long, you've probably received an invitation to one of our...

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...

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 story of Raleigh, N.C., at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 is one of collaboration. We talk about Raleigh being “a city that prides itself on our collaborative spirit,” which I suspect many cities say about themselves, but not so many do. You might have seen tweets and Instagram...

In all likelihood, you have seen a story about Raleigh/Wake County floating around the last few days from The Washington Post, written by Melanie D.G. Kaplan. If you missed it, you can read it here. It’s a stellar piece and highlights many of the visitor attractions, museums, restaurants,...

Often during election seasons, you will hear candidates and their advisers talk about staying "on message"... that is, to not get distracted by tangential topics or issues that would take the focus from where it belongs—on that which is official and most important. During 2019,...

In case you missed the media coverage, we're republishing the press release that went out from GRCVB last week regarding the attendance (which over six years has passed the 1M mark) and economic impact of the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA's) World of Bluegrass week...

We don’t know if you have noticed, but GRCVB groups all of our communication about the business of destination marketing under one thematic umbrella—Tourism Talk. Anything that appears under the "Tourism Talk" header is tailored for hospitality partners, business leaders,...