Tourism Talk blog

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...

Last week, GRCVB marketing, sports marketing and public relations staff attended the statewide travel and tourism industry conference, Visit North Carolina 365 . Destination marketing organizations and others from across the state gather each year to network and hear the latest on Visit North

The story of Raleigh, N.C. , at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 is one of collaboration. We talk about Raleigh being “a city that prides itself on our collaborative spirit,” which I suspect many cities say about themselves, but not so many do. You might have seen tweets and Instagram...

You have heard and seen us talking about the second annual Wake County Hospitality Job Fair , which happened last Tues., March 5, 2019. Over 55 employers were on hand to talk with several hundred applicants about job opportunities at their businesses. We are sharing some photos from the Fair below,

In the first Tourism Talk post of 2019 , we outlined the three talking points GRCVB will be reiterating in much of our communication this year. The first of those and perhaps the most important is the Value of Tourism . We explained in detail why tourism matters to Wake County in the second post of

In all likelihood, you have seen a story about Raleigh/Wake County floating around the last few days from The Washington Post, written by Melanie D.G. Kaplan. If you missed it, you can read it here . It’s a stellar piece and highlights many of the visitor attractions, museums , restaurants ,...

Tourism has a way of feeling secondary to other forms of economic development in a community, maybe because it represents a transient group of people or because some equate tourism with vacations, free sightseeing and off-hours entertainment. It tends to not carry the import that it deserves. But

Last Thurs. at our Annual Meeting, GRCVB, along with hospitality-industry consultant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), unveiled the results of the Destination Strategic Plan (DSP) to grow tourism in Wake County to more than 21 million visitors annually by 2028. We thank those who attended and heard about

One of the visitor service areas that we are talking about more often here at GRCVB is accessibility —making Raleigh and Wake County’s offerings for visitors available to people of all abilities. Julie Brakenbury, CGSP ® , director of services, dealt with the topic in this blog a...

Back in 2015, GRCVB first expanded its promotion of signature experiences for visitors of all types, developing a Things to Do webpage that showcased a curated collection of personal tours and hands-on encounters in Raleigh/Wake County. All these experiences were suited for small groups (e.g.,