Tourism Talk blog

The year 2020 was an extremely challenging and difficult time for the leisure and hospitality industry. However, as vaccines continue to be developed and distributed, we believe consumer confidence regarding travel once again will begin to rebound. There are indicators that Wake County tourism will

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...

We already know that, as we move into COVID-19 tourism recovery countywide, it will be a while before we will have visitors arriving in large numbers by plane. However, leadership at RDU International Airport has taken steps to ensure the safety of all air travelers and announced guidelines already

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 9, 2020. First, Dennis Edwards, president and CEO of GRCVB, reported hotel performance numbers for the week of March

If you live or work in downtown Raleigh, you are familiar with and may be reliant on the R-LINE, the free, hybrid-electric, circulator bus service. When we're promoting downtown as a destination for leisure and meeting/convention visitors, we often include mention of the R-LINE, which makes...

As we speak about the impact tourism has on broader economic development for our region, that notion is no more evident than in our international tourism efforts. That said, in early October I spent a week overseas for a series of events in Paris and London in support of our nonstop flights to RDU

Once a year or so, I overhear someone say that the Raleigh area doesn't have a brand. Having been project manager for development of the Raleigh, N.C., Destination Brand Strategy in 2014-2015, however, I know that we have at least one brand platform countywide! The problem is that we...

It’s the time of year when we release the Official Media Kit for 2019‒2020, a collection of GRCVB-sanctioned avenues to promote your business or organization to potential visitors. Just as a reminder, every hospitality partner in the county already gets free, year-round exposure from...

We continue to make progress on Destination 2028. Esports and event metrics Esports was a major opportunity under the Sports priority of the Destination Strategic Plan (DSP). I'm pleased to report that we have booked our first esports event, which will bring in more than 3,500 competitors and

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...