Tourism Talk blog

So far, 2022 has been an exciting return to form for Raleigh and Wake County tourism. With outdoor sports events never having left, festivals bouncing back from dormant years prior and conventions/meeting groups returning en masse, leisure and group business, it seems, are back. And it's only...

If you haven't visited the official Visitor Information Center (VIC) in downtown Raleigh recently, stop by and take a look. The walls are sporting a vibrant red which gives the space a new energy. Kessa Stevens, CGSP ® , GRCVB's VIC manager, is on hand to answer questions and provide...

Tourism Talk Live is back again in 2022, and we're excited to share with you updates about destination marketing for Raleigh/Wake County during the upcoming season and fiscal year. For the uninitiated, we've written a Q&A to get you familiarized. What is Tourism Talk Live? Tourism Talk...

Let me tell you what happened to me last week. On Monday, my colleague in the Marketing Department, Carly Delengowski, was working on a blog post for the meetings section of our website that highlighted renovations at the John Chavis Memorial Park and Community Center. Because I'm the keeper of...

A few weeks ago, we published in the Tourism Talk blog the first Tourism Talk microcast in which GRCVB's executive vice president Loren J. Gold described a piece of legislation that creates production tax incentives for groups wanting to plan esports events in Wake County and North Carolina....

Like it did with virtually everything else, the pandemic affected implementation of the 10-year Destination Strategic Plan (DSP) we launched in 2018. Some of the eight priorities in the DSP had to be shuffled in 2020, some received different levels of focus this fiscal year than originally expected,

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.

For many of you, this will be a reintroduction to Jessica because you already know her from her eight years at GRCVB. Jessica Holt was recently promoted from a manager role to director of GRCVB's Public Relations and International Tourism Department. She's a shining example of a crop of...

With 2021 winding down, here are 21 things in the Greater Raleigh sports tourism industry that I’m thankful for as we head into the holiday season: 1. Our GRSA staff. You won’t find a better or more hard-working group anywhere in America. That would be Tori Collins, Jason Philbeck,...