Tourism Talk blog

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...

I’m sure you contend—in your work—with some of the same dilemmas that we do at GRCVB. There are many valuable ideas and projects that we could tackle, but the resources of time, people and funds are limited. So we, like you, have to prioritize—from among the options, we...

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...

It’s the time of year when we release the Official Media Kit for 2019‒2020, a collection of GRCVB-sanctioned avenues to promote your business or organization to potential visitors. Just as a reminder, every hospitality partner in the county already gets free, year-round exposure from...

At GRCVB, there seems to be a cycle of buzzwords that we use in our meetings and hallway conversations. In the last year or two, I have heard master plan, disruption, deep dive and "move the needle" tossed around quite a bit. One phrase that has always been around but that we’re...

We continue to make progress on Destination 2028. Esports and event metrics Esports was a major opportunity under the Sports priority of the Destination Strategic Plan (DSP). I'm pleased to report that we have booked our first esports event, which will bring in more than 3,500 competitors and

We’re happy to announce that the 2019‒2020 edition of the Official Visitors Guide to Raleigh, Cary and Wake County has been provided to the printer. We expect the Visitors Guides to ship mid-May, and you should start seeing them by late May. Here are a few notes about this year's...