Tourism Talk blog

About this time every year (at least for the last three years), we have published a “Reasons to be Thankful for Visitors” Tourism Talk blog. (It is the season, after all.) In 2019, we noted 700+ reasons to be grateful for visitors and what they bring to Wake County. Within that number...

One of the important responsibilities that GRCVB bears for Wake County is the collection and constant monitoring of tourism-related statistics. As you can imagine during the past year, we have seen some jubilant highs and jarring lows as tourism numbers, across the board, have been reported. As is

GRCVB, just like many organizations throughout Wake County, has learned to evolve and discover how best to sustain its core mission in the ever-changing landscape of 2020. Many plans disrupted this year required fresh creativity and a willingness to pivot to make them work. That went doubly so for

Last week you heard from the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance on how that team at GRCVB has been working hard during the COVID crisis. This week you are hearing from the Marketing and Communications Department and its director, Jonathan Freeze, CDME. On March 23, 2020, we officially activated the

In case you missed it, GRCVB released this report to the media last week. ...... Raleigh, N.C. (July 7, 2020) – The Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau (Visit Raleigh) and the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance (GRSA) released a report detailing the impact that COVID-19 is having on...

Leaders in the hospitality sector and local community are hosting weekly conference calls with updates related to the COVID-19 crisis. Here is a summary of the call from Thurs., April 16, 2020 (or if you prefer to listen to the full recording, please find it here)... Dennis Edwards, president and

You may remember that, in Nov. 2019, GRCVB launched its All Access Wake County initiative, which purposes: to educate and train Wake County hospitality partners with information they can use immediately and long-term to provide effective servicing to guests with accessibility challenges; to call

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...

Last year I wrote about the philosophy behind developing festival/event tourism in our area and plugging data into a cycle of improvement that leads to more positive impacts from these events. This week I want to be more specific about how GRCVB can help area festival/event organizers who are

In case you missed it, here's the press release that was distributed last week regarding the economic impact from 2019 World of Bluegrass. .......... New Free Model a Success for IBMA’s Wide Open Bluegrass Festival Biggest week in Bluegrass sees increase in overnight visitation and...