Tourism Talk blog

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

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...

Here’s something we haven’t been able to say for a while—the Official Visitors Guide to Raleigh, Cary and Wake County is back! The guide is in the early stages of production with a targeted publication date of Feb. 2023. The last time we announced a new Official Visitors Guide...

Raleigh, N.C. (May 19, 2022) – Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau (Visit Raleigh) has released the Wake County Tourism Industry Report for the first quarter (Q1) of 2022. All key performance indicators and tax collections for the hospitality industry in Wake County are up...

Representatives from North Carolina travel and tourism, including GRCVB president and CEO Dennis Edwards, were in Washington, D.C., recently for Destination Capitol Hill, the U.S. Travel Association’s annual event for leaders in the travel sector. The group had successful meetings with Sen....

Because we often field some of the same questions about GRCVB and the work we do, we are summarizing here some information we'd like all stakeholders and partners to know about the Bureau as an organization and our role in the community. Question 1: Exactly what kind of entity is GRCVB, and to...

Why tourism matters. We talk about that a lot, but the relevance of tourism to the health and vitality of Raleigh and Wake County has never been more apparent since the pandemic began. We are teaming with Destinations International, the international association for destination management and our

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.