Tourism Talk blog

We all know a picture is worth a thousand words, but when looking at these photos, you can almost hear the bluegrass. Downtown Raleigh, N.C., was privileged to again host IBMA World of Bluegrass from Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 2022. Hurricane Ian made his presence known by causing all of the festivities to

During the 2022 GRCVB Annual Meeting in August, president and CEO Dennis Edwards mentioned that the Bureau is participating in a comprehensive project to bring stability back to our hospitality workforce after the pandemic. "The City and County recently appropriated $1.25 million to Capital...

It's always good to see deserving colleagues recognized for the quality of the work they do. That happened at GRCVB recently when two, relatively long-time department heads were promoted to vice presidents in their respective areas of responsibility. Jonathan Freeze, CDME, who has been director

Since everyone else is heading back to school, we figured it was time for us, too, so we are bringing back live and in-person Tourism U classes, GRCVB's award-winning learning track for tourism and destination education. We launched Tourism U 100 Level in 2019 and tested several in-person...

A report released Aug. 18 by GRCVB revealed that Wake County welcomed 15.8 million visitors in 2021, a 23% increase over 2020. These nearly 16 million visitors who traveled to Wake County spent $2.3 billion in our community, a 40% increase over 2020. After numbers declined in 2020, both visitation

The GRCVB Convention Sales Department hosted its fourth annual Meeting Professionals Summit on Thurs., Aug. 11, 2022, at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley to educate, network and promote best practices among meeting planners, area hoteliers and venues, as well as enjoy a candle-making class

GRCVB hosted its 35th Annual Meeting on Thurs., Aug. 18, 2022, at A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater at Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Here’s a summary of the meeting... GRCVB Board of Directors chair Mark Zimmerman reported top-line 2021 and 2022 tourism numbers. At the close of the...

We believe there are some people in our area whom every hospitality partner ought to know (or at least know about). Today we want to introduce you to Duarte Morais, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at N.C. State. Dr. Morais is the cofounder of

We start planning GRCVB's Annual Meeting in February of each year, and in a task that is related to my role as creative director, I get to be project manager. As we have been planning, I have been thinking about similar meetings that are presented by our local hospitality partners and...

For the last few months, we have been posting blogs and sending emails in anticipation of the The Kennedy Center's Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD ® ) Conference being hosted in downtown Raleigh from Aug. 1-5, 2022. Many local hospitality stakeholders and partners have...