Tourism Talk blog

Do you remember that old Mac Davis song "Happiness is (an unnamed Texas city) in the Rearview Mirror"? We're going to paraphrase it to "Happiness is 2020 in the Rearview Mirror." With the end of this unexpected and unprecedented year in front of us and vaccines loaded onto...

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

GRCVB’s Annual Meeting went virtual this year on Wed., Aug. 26, 2020. A full recording of the live presentation is available here along with a copy of the accompanying PowerPoint presentation. We’re including a few of the highlights in this blog post, although there is much more...

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...

At last year's Annual Meeting in Aug. 2019, we announced that GRCVB would establish a series of tourism educational offerings called "Tourism U" for our partners and other interested stakeholders. Tourism U was designed to explain the cycle of tourism, specific to Wake County, as well...

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 30, 2020 (or if you prefer to listen to the full recording, please find it here)... Dennis Edwards, GRCVB president

Substantial progress has occurred over the past month addressing the priorities of the Wake County Destination Strategic Plan (DSP). Funding for an Indoor Sports Complex approved The Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Raleigh City Council approved annual funding of $2.36 million over the

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

Quarterly report released GRCVB released its 2019 third-quarter industry report, and all indicators confirm that tourism is doing extremely well in Wake County. Hotel occupancy in the county is up 6.3%, running at 74.6% through Sept. year-to-date (YTD). Lodging tax collections are up 11.3% and