Weekly e-newsletter for Visit NC partners, February 23, 2022 |
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| IN THIS ISSUE:
* Hit it out of the park at Visit NC 365’s opening night reception * Visit NC’s next webinar on March 10 features TRAC * Visit NC PR team generates Piedmont cities coverage |
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Hit it out of the park at Visit NC 365’s opening reception on Sunday night Don’t miss the opportunity to participate in on-field batting practice, behind-the-scenes tours of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and a photo opportunity with Wool E. Bull. Sign up for the Visit NC 365 Conference and join in on the fun at Sunday night’s opening reception at the DBAP. Enjoy the opportunity to reconnect with Visit NC’s staff and old friends, plus get acquainted with new faces in the tourism industry prior to conference sessions starting Monday morning. This year’s Visit NC 365 Conference is in Durham, March 20-22. Don’t forget to register for the conference. The registration of $499/person includes attendance to the conference; keynote and breakout sessions from industry leaders, motivational speakers and educational opportunities; plus networking with exhibitors. Returning this year is the NCTIA Tourism Education Foundation's Silent Auction, with proceeds going to support scholarships for students in the hospitality or tourism industry. Visit NC 365 hotel blocks are filling up quickly. Don’t forget to book your room at the remaining hotels, 21C Museum and Aloft. Hotel reservations need to be made separately from the conference via specially designated room blocks at several area hotels. Click here for hotel reservation information.
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Visit NC’s next webinar on March 10 features TRAC Visit NC‘s popular webinar series continues on March 10at 9 a.m. The next webinar highlights Visit NC’s Tourism Resource Assistance Center (TRAC) program, which brings Visit NC's program managers to local communities to discuss the nuts and bolts of working with the organization. In this webinar, Visit NC staff will discuss how TRAC works, who generally attends and how to schedule TRAC in your area. This invaluable program is designed to help tourism-related businesses in smaller cities and towns engage more fully with programs offered by Visit NC and its partners. The webinar series offers a quick update on current research findings and activities of note from Visit NC, focusing on a different featured topic each month. The series is tentatively scheduled to take place the second Thursday of each month, |
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Visit NC PR team generates Piedmont cities coverage on AFAR.com Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Charlotte are featured in an AFAR.com post as the result of an October media visit arranged by the Visit NC PR team. Headlined “A Road Trip Through North Carolina’s Reinvented Core,” the article follows the urban buzz and highlights cultural heritage attractions, lodging options, restaurants and cocktail joints. Bookended by Visit NC’s In-State Media Mission and the BayHaven Food & Wine Festival, the trip was supported by the Raleigh, Greensboro and Winston-Salem CVBs and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. AFAR.com garners 1.1 million unique monthly views. |
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Gilbert joins Visit North Carolina as senior PR representative
Veda Gilbert has joined the Visit NC team as the new senior PR representative. She will travel extensively with media, domestic and international public relations and Partner & Industry Relations contractors, and travel trade on behalf of Visit NC for individual visits, familiarization trips and media missions. Gilbert will specialize in creating trip itineraries and story ideas, while also supporting the overall public relations efforts of Visit NC. Originally from Australia, Gilbert was formerly a food and travel writer who specialized in writing about the South for Australian publications. With her affinity for North Carolina and, finding it harder and harder to leave, she relocated here in 2017 with her two sons. She most recently was PR manager at Discover Durham and brings a wealth of DMO experience. Gilbert is also fully certified North Carolina BBQ judge who will happily argue all things pork related.Gilbert can be contacted at (919) 447-7809 or via veda.gilbert@visitnc.com. |
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Vogelsberg joins N.C. Film Office Jen Vogelsberg has joined the N.C. Film Office as its marketing & film services specialist. She will serve as a day-to-day contact for productions in terms of assisting on-the-ground matters, such as serving as a liaison with the state and production companies on road assistance and use of state park requests, and aiding in connecting productions with the proper local officials for securing permits or municipality permissions for filming. She'll also oversee three of the NCFO's vital marketing tools: the film professional “crew” directory, the Support Services directory, and the statewide locations library. She comes to Visit NC after overseeing North Carolina’s STEP program within the EDPNC’s Export Assistance team. Vogelsberg may be contacted at (919) 447-7787 or viajen@filmnc.com. |
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The I-95 South N.C. Welcome Center will close March 1 for 14 months. The N.C. Dept. of Transportation plans a major construction project for the site, which includes demolishing and rebuilding the Welcome Center, Rest Area restrooms and Vending, bringing them all under one roof in one state-of-the-art building. The projected reopening date is slated for May 2023. The staff at the I-95 South will relocate to the I-95 Cumberland County Northbound Rest Area at exit 48 in Fayetteville in the meantime, to continue servicing visitors to the state. As with all Welcome Centers, it will be closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. To contact the I-95 South N.C. Welcome Center, call (910) 422- 8314, as the phone number remains the same, or contact Welcome Center Manager Kat Littleturtle. |
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Research shows high priorities for travel to new places, family travel experiences Travelers are returning to a more open mindset with regards to destination choice, reports Destination Analysts. While about one-third of travelers prefer to travel to familiar places, more than half of respondents to recent research note that “visiting new places they hadn’t been to before” would be a high priority this year. Enjoying the outdoors remains a high priority though, with beaches and National Parks ranking highest when asked about types of destinations desired. |
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Family travel experiences remain high on the list of priorities for American travelers. When asked what experiences they would prioritize this year, more than three-quarters said family. Similarly, when asked to describe themselves, 72 percent of travelers said that “spending time with family and making memories with them is important to why they travel.” More than half of travelers agreed with the statement “being outside and reconnecting with nature motivates me to travel.” |
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Travel remains a high budget priority for nearly two-thirds of American travelers. Forty percent of travelers report that they expect to travel more for leisure in the next 12 months and 39 percent expect to spend more on leisure travel in the next 12 months. |
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Visit NC will be providing frequent research updates through Newslink with links to available studies. |
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Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains among top national park visitation sites; GSMNP sets visitation record The National Park Service (NPS) has announced Annual Visitation Highlights for 2021. While some of the most well-known national parks again had record visitation in 2021, numbers across the entire National Park System remained below pre-pandemic totals. In 2021, the National Park Service received 237 million recreation visits, down more than 90 million visits (27.6 percent) from 2019. The decrease was due largely to temporary park closures implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Blue Ridge Parkway took the #1 spot, Great Smoky Mountains National Park moved up to #2 with Cape Hatteras National Seashore #23 in the top 25 Most Visited Parks of the National Park System, which includes national parks as well as historic sites, lakeshores, seashores and more. Great Smoky Mountains National Park set a visitation record in 2021 and passed 14 million recreation visits for the first time. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was #1 among the most visited national parks. The Blue Ridge Parkway was #1 among national parkways. Cape Hatteras National Seashore was #3 in the most visited national seashores, with Cape Lookout NS at #8. Moores Creek NB was #9 among National Battlefields. Fort Raleigh NHS was #5 among the top 10 National Historic Sites. Wright Brothers NM was #12 among the top 15 National Memorials. Guilford Courthouse NMP was #7 among the National Military Parks. To view the complete annual rankings, including a breakdown by categories of park types, start here. |
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Asheville's Applewood Manor is ‘Bringing in Top Chefs for a “Communal Table” Dining Experience’ Travel + Leisure highlighted Applewood Manor in Asheville in its "This Charming Bed-and-breakfast in Asheville Is Bringing in Top Chefs for a 'Communal Table' Dining Experience." The writer explained, in part, "A recent trip to a bed-and-breakfast in Asheville, North Carolina, persuaded me that [food] tastes even better with strangers. My former conviction crumbled around the cozy communal table at Applewood Manor, where over the course of a few days in mid-December, I shared a series of exceptional meals with a group of people I'd never met – an experience I'd sorely missed over the past two years of limiting most social interactions to my pandemic pod. It didn't hurt that the food was cooked by a Michelin-starred chef, either.... The magic of Applewood Manor – a brick-red New England-style Colonial Revival gem from 1912 – is in its focus on intimate, immersive experiences, which range from cycling to business leadership to guest chef events.” |
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James Beard Awards semi-finalists include N.C. sites, chefs Outstanding Restaurant · Chai Pani, Asheville Emerging Chef · Cleophus Hethington, Benne on Eagle, Asheville Best New Restaurant · MACHETE, Greensboro · Nani's Piri Piri Chicken, Asheville Outstanding Baker · Susannah Gebhart, Old World Levain (OWL) Bakery, Asheville Outstanding Hospitality · Cúrate, Asheville Outstanding Bar Program · Alley Twenty Six, Durham Best Chef: Southeast · Katie Button, Cúrate, Asheville · Greg Collier, Leah & Louise, Charlotte · Oscar Diaz, The Cortez, Raleigh · Sunny Gerhart, St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar, Raleigh · Cheetie Kumar, Garland, Raleigh · Ricky Moore, SALTBOX Seafood Joint, Durham · Peyton Smith, Mission Pizza Napoletana, Winston-Salem · Stephanie Tyson, Sweet Potatoes, Winston-Salem · Aaron Vandemark, Panciuto, Hillsborough |
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‘North Carolina Weekend’
For the week of Feb. 24, "North Carolina Weekend” spotlights “The Great Outdoors.” Segments include Huffman Creek Retreat in Robbinsville; Thermal Belt Rail Trail, which connects Forest City, Rutherfordton and Spindale; Uwharrie Trailblazers in Uwharrie; and The Mast General Stores, basing the segment in Valle Crucis. (Check local listings for schedule; segments are subject to change.) "North Carolina Weekend" is underwritten by Visit North Carolina. In addition, PBS North Carolina has recent editions of "North Carolina Weekend" available online. |
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Resources for travel industry regarding COVID-19
As the travel industry is facing challenging times in the ever-changing situation of COVID-19 and its effects, there are several useful resources available to help with information, communications, planning and guidance. |
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NewsLink is a publication of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina 150 Fayetteville St., Suite 1200, Raleigh, NC 27601 |
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