Tourism Talk blog

New year, new channel. Today we're sharing the first "Tourism Talk: The Podcast," what we hope will be a regular part of the Tourism Talk lineup. In this inaugural edition, GRCVB executive vice president Loren J. Gold reports on North Carolina's recent esports tax incentive...

GRCVB and the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association (NCRLA) hosted a digital briefing on Dec. 15, 2021. In addition to updates from both organizations, callers heard from Ben Ellsworth, founder of Gigpro, an application that helps hospitality employers find shift employees quickly.

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

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....

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

The last 17 months have no doubt been unprecedented in their overall effect on the revenues, employment and economic performance in the hospitality sector. Contingency planning, recovery tactics and long-term resiliency are the objectives for the GRCVB and all our community partners. The old saying

Most sports fans know that the NFL Draft Combine is held every year in Indianapolis. But they may not know that the first-ever Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft Combine was held last month right here in Cary and Raleigh. The inaugural event featured approximately 175 of the premier college and high

We believe there are some people in our area whom every hospitality partner ought to know (or at least know about). And we're planning to introduce you to them in a series of Q&A interviews during 2021. Today we want to introduce you to Whitney Knollenberg, Ph.D., assistant professor in the

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...

GRCVB has long been an active and accredited member of Destinations International, the industry association for professional destination marketing organizations (DMOs). The association purposes to "make members and their destinations successful. As the world's largest and most reliable...