Tourism Talk blog

Why tourism matters. We talk about that a lot, but the relevance of tourism to the health and vitality of Raleigh and Wake County has never been more apparent since the pandemic began. We are teaming with Destinations International, the international association for destination management and our

The Wake County Board of Commissioners allocated $2.67 million of their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the GRCVB in late summer 2021, which was included in our 2021-2022 fiscal-year budget and business plan. These funds brought our budget back to nearly pre-COVID levels and put us in a

One of the benefits of being part of the Wake County hospitality community and a partner of GRCVB is the free listing every area business gets on visitRaleigh.com. (As an aside, the website garners almost three million uses every year, and some of those user eyeballs are landing on your listings.)

GRCVB hosted its first hybrid Annual Meeting on Thurs., Aug. 19, 2021, virtually and in A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater at Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Here’s a summary of the meeting... Wake County welcomed 12.9 million visitors in 2020, which was a decrease of 29% from 2019....

We're making available the Official Media Kit for 2021‒2022, a collection of GRCVB-sanctioned avenues to promote your business or organization to potential visitors. Just as a reminder, every hospitality partner in Wake County already gets free, year-round exposure from the CVB,...

GRCVB released the highly anticipated 2020 tourism numbers recently, and we're reposting here in case you missed the announcement. We will share more about the broader impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and, more importantly, its impact on the future of the Wake County tourism industries, at the

Once again... the announcement is bittersweet. GRCVB’s director of destination services Julie Brakenbury, CGSP ® , has announced her retirement. Just as with the retirement of Theresa Tyler in Dec. 2020, saying goodbye to these colleagues comes with mixed emotions; we’re happy for...

In case you missed it, GRCVB released this report to media on May 10. ........................... 2021 First Quarter Wake County Tourism Industry Report Tourism tax collections and KPIs slowly rebounding from COVID-19 pandemic Raleigh, N.C. – GRCVB has released the Wake County Tourism...

You’ve heard us talk about accessibility a lot in the past. As recently as Dec. 2020 we hosted Episode Three of our Meeting Professionals Summit Virtual Series, “From Leaders in the Field: Practical tips for making in-person and virtual events accessible.” In that episode, we...

Now that many of us are sporting red Walgreens bandages on our arms after first and second vaccine doses, the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel seems brighter than ever. There are sports groups (and big ones) already on their way for national championships and tournaments in Wake County this