| Weekly e-newsletter for VisitNC partners | January 8, 2020 |
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| IN THIS ISSUE:
* Visit NC 365 Sunday opening reception at the Asheville Art Museum, hosted by Explore Asheville
* Roundtable: Travel leaders discuss industry trends
* Visit NC, EDPNC moving offices end of January
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 | | | Opening night reception at a previous Visit NC 365 Conference |
Visit NC 365 Sunday opening reception at the Asheville Art Museum, hosted by Explore Asheville
Craft and creativity will take the spotlight at the Visit NC 365 Conference Opening Reception on March 22. The Sunday night reception will be hosted by Explore Asheville and set in the Asheville Art Museum's new state-of-the-art building, which reopened this past November after a $24 million renovation and expansion. Come celebrate the art of makers with locally inspired food, craft beer and wine provided by Biltmore. Guests will have the opportunity to explore the museum's collection in the expanded gallery space with guided docent tours, and don't forget to check out the rooftop sculpture terrace with views of downtown architecture and the surrounding mountains. The central location will be a perfect spot to start your evening and convenient to downtown dining and nightlife. Registration is open for the Visit NC 365 Conference, where stimulating keynote speakers and sessions will offer new ideas and inspirations. The Visit NC 365 Conference, named for the year-round tourism industry across the state, brings together more than 500 of the state's tourism industry leaders during this three-day premier travel industry event. |
Roundtable: Travel leaders discuss industry trends
In its December issue, Business North Carolina magazine's Roundtable spotlighted the tourism industry with "Top in Tourism," a look at how tourism is a driving force within the state. Participants were Visit NC's Wit Tuttell, Mike Applegate with Gaston County T & T, Laurie Paolicell with Chapel Hill/Orange County VB, Phil Werz with the CVB of Pinehurst/Southern Pines/Aberdeen Area, and Christina York with Grandover Resort in Greensboro. The group discussed a variety of topics ranging from the importance of tourism to their area, how their tourism-related businesses fared this past year, and the impact of meeting & convention business. The article concluded with Tuttell's summation: "What we're seeing now is more people getting engaged in planning [tourism growth], and product development is huge. If you look at the areas that have developed the right product, they're the ones that are taking off. That's the key." |
Visit NC, EDPNC moving offices end of January
Visit North Carolina, along with the rest of the EDPNC, is moving its offices later this month. The new address will be 150 Fayetteville St., Suite 1200, Raleigh, NC 27601. Phone numbers and emails will remain the same. Please update any records accordingly. In addition to being more centrally located in downtown Raleigh, this move will put the Visit NC and EDPNC offices closer to state government offices. Just as with Visit NC's current location in Cary, the offices will be set up as business offices, so not as a type of visitor information center; partners are reminded not to automatically send boxes of their visitor brochures as there will be no brochure displays available. |
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Greensboro Aquatics Center lands major swimming events with economic impact of $20.2 million
An already busy 2020 amateur sports calendar in Greensboro has become more robust with last month's announcement that the YMCA of the USA National Long Course Swimming Championships will be held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in 2020 and 2021. That's in addition to the news that the Y-USA National Short Course Swimming Championship, which the GAC has hosted since 2012, has been extended three years through 2023. The GAC hosted the National Long Course Championship for the first time in 2017, making it the first venue to host both championships in the same year. In addition to noting that Greensboro won all five bids put out by Y-USA, Greensboro Area CVB's Henri Fourrier estimated the economic impact of the five events combined at $20.2 million. Ironically, added Greensboro Coliseum Complex's Matt Brown, that economic impact was about the same as the cost to build the $19 million facility at the Coliseum Complex. |
NC Zoo sets attendance record in 2019
The NC Zoo set a new calendar year attendance record in 2019 while topping 900,000 for the first time, the zoo announced last Friday. Attendance to the world's largest natural habitat zoo climbed to 917,309 in 2019. That total was 85,000 more than 2018 and topped the previous high of 860,148 set in 2017. |
DPAC wraps-up 2019 with record-breaking attendance
The Durham Performing Arts Center wrapped up 2019 with record-breaking attendance. The Durham venue saw 2019 as a record-breaking year with 522,515 guests attending 239 events, the highest attendance for a calendar year since the center's opening in 2008. With these new attendance figures, DPAC continues to be ranked among the top five theaters in America by three leading national magazines that cover live entertainment events and venues. In their recently released year-end published attendance and sales rankings, Pollstar, Billboard and Venues Now all placed DPAC among the top U.S. venues of its size and type. Among U.S. theaters, DPAC was ranked #3 in Venues Now, #4 in Pollstar and #5 in Billboard. |
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'The Polar Express is not only real, you can ride it'
Fortune highlighted the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad's "The Polar Express" train ride in its "The Polar Express Is Not Only Real, You Can Ride It." While the popular Christmas story is licensed to a number of different railroads around the country each November and December, one of the largest of those railroads is the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, located in Bryson City. Guests arrive at the train depot in Bryson City to pick up [their] golden ticket and then, just like the boy in the story, they're greeted by a conductor. "We invested a large sum of money last year to do a really cool light show that synchronized the music before they board there at the depot, which was really impressive," said Great Smoky Mountain Railroad's Sarah Pressley. And it's not a small operation. Bryson City's train has 17 cars and can hold roughly 800 people at maximum capacity. The train runs from November 8 through December 31, most often three times a day. Pressley estimates that roughly 94,000 people will have ridden the train by the end of the year.
The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad's Polar Express was one of "7 Christmas trains" that were offered this past holiday season. The NC Transportation Museum in Spencer also offered its Polar Express, with other Christmas trains being the Museum of Life + Science Museum's Santa Train in Durham, New Hope Valley Railway's Santa's Reindeer Roundup Express in New Hill, Tweetsie Railroad's Tweetsie Christmas in Blowing Rock, Denton FarmPark's Country Christmas Train in Denton, and Hubb Farm's Christmas on the Farm train in Clinton. |
'Christmas in the mountains of Western North Carolina'
Last month, The Palm Beach Post offered "Christmas in the mountains of Western North Carolina." The online photo gallery featured Biltmore House in Asheville and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City. Also spotlighted were decorated scenes and sights in Bryson City, Dillsboro and Sylva. |
'Perfect Winter Weekends' in the spotlight
The January issue of Our State magazine spotlights "Perfect Winter Weekends." "Downtown" tours Gastonia; "Restaurant" features McDowell Local in Marion; and "Brewery" visits R&R Brewing in Mount Olive. The January issue is available now. |
Surveys, Industry, Marketing & Travel Trends
Color-blind museumgoers in Denver can now see art in full color - Last month, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver began offering lenses engineered for people with color vision deficiency, according to HyperAllergic.com. "Sometimes color blindness feels like an annoyance, other times it feels like a bigger inclusivity issue," said a MCA manager, who's color-blind and who also initiated the partnership. "Every single person was experiencing what the artist was talking about, except for me." California-based EnChroma donated four pairs of their glasses to the MCA as part of the company's accessibility program. One pair is child-size. According to the National Institute of Health, about one in 12 men and one in 200 women experience color blindness, with the large majority of those cases being anomalous trichomacy, a type of partial color blindness in which colors lose their vibrancy. Hitting the road (or trail) on a guided hotel run - Rock climbing in Miami. Yogalates in Cancun. Khmer boxing in Cambodia. At a time when niche workouts have become a trendy hotel amenity, some properties are embracing something a bit more minimalist: the pound of the pavement under your own two feet, reports The New York Times. Hotels across the globe are organizing guided runs for guests, offering them a chance to maintain daily routines as well as explore a new destination. "Guided runs are just one of the many ways hotels and resorts are offering their wellness-minded guests the opportunity to maintain their daily routines while traveling," said a Wellness Tourism Association representative. "A guided running tour is also an ideal way to explore a new destination in a way that is not harmful to the environment. Good for the person; good for the planet." |
Attracting green-conscious travelers
For hotels, restaurants and other travel-oriented businesses looking to attract green-conscious travelers, it is important to develop a marketing plan that is honest, transparent and verifiable. Green-conscious travelers want to know more than that the destination they are visiting is green; they want to know what specific actions have been taken to protect the environment. Becoming certified or recognized as a green travel destination is a great place for a hotel, restaurant or an attraction to begin promoting their green efforts. State programs such as North Carolina's NC GreenTravel Initiative provide verifiable recognition for hotels, restaurants, breweries, wineries, attractions and other green travel-oriented businesses, so having that "green" designation can be impactful for marketing. For more information on what can be done to attract green travelers, contact NC GreenTravel Program Manager Tom Rhodes at (919) 707-8140. |
| | For the week of Jan. 9 on "North Carolina Weekend," the program repeats the episode that originally aired Nov. 14. Segments include the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in Wilson; Lionel Train Store in Concord; and Bellamy Mansion Museum in Wilmington; plus the "House Special" at Zanyu Asian Noodles in Raleigh. (Check local listings; segments are subject to change.) "North Carolina Weekend" is underwritten by Visit North Carolina. In addition, UNC-TV has recent editions of "North Carolina Weekend" available online. | More than two-thirds (69.5 percent) of North Carolina overnight visitor parties have a household head with a college degree or higher. The average overnight visitor is 46 years old. The N.C. resident overnight visitor is slightly younger (45 years old) than the out-of-state overnight visitor (47 years old). For more North Carolina visitor information, visit Visitor Profile Studies, or contact Visit NC's Marlise Taylor at (919) 447-7748. |
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Upcoming Industry Meetings & Events
Jan. 25-27 - NC Assn. of Festivals & Events Showfest, Charlotte Jan. 28 - NC Sports Assn. Meeting, Durham Feb. 3 - NCRLA Annual Meeting, Raleigh Feb. 13 - NC Coast Host Meeting, Morehead City March 10-12 - NC Main Street Conference, New Bern March 13-17 - SXSW Festival Conference, Austin, Texas March 22-24 - Visit NC 365 Conference, Asheville |
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