Tourism Talk blog

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

I am pleased to inform you that the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Raleigh City Council approved the following last week related to Interlocal Fund distributions: 1. A stadium feasibility study JLL (the same organization which conducted GRCVB's Destination Strategic Plan project...

Because of the 2019 Annual Meeting and previous Tourism Talk blog posts, you may already know that one of the key talking points for GRCVB this year is the value of tourism. Why does tourism matter and what difference does it make in the local economy, to the vibrancy of our area and to each of us

After 11 months of a comprehensive and transparent process, the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Raleigh City Council approved future distribution of the Interlocal Fund, which is a combination of the county’s lodging and prepared food and beverage tax revenues. The approved...

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

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

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,...

Hospitality tax stakeholders City and County leaders hosted a hospitality tax stakeholders meeting at Marbles Kids Museum on June 19. I would like to congratulate the County Manager and Raleigh City Manager and their staffs on developing the proposal and for the transparency of the process. I

There were some important staff announcements out of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance office recently that Wake County partners need to know. ....... Raleigh, N.C. – The Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance (GRSA) has promoted Tori Collins to director and Jason Philbeck to associate director....