Weekly e-newsletter for VisitNC partners
October 24, 2018
IN THIS ISSUE:
* Register now for 2019 Visit NC 365
* Call Center in the spotlight
* @VisitNC shares fall updates every Wednesday

Register now for 2019 Visit NC 365
 
Registration is now open for the 2019 Visit NC 365 Conference, in Wilmington March 31 - April 2 at the Wilmington Convention Center. 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. 
 
Opening keynote speaker, Ingrid Fetel Lee, speaks to the relationship between our environment and our emotions. She'll share inspiration for living a more joyful life through design in our surroundings, communities, and cities and how happiness can impact tourism.
 
Tuesday's final keynote, Dustin Garis, has become known as "Chief Troublemaker" and the "Indiana Jones of Marketing" for his innovative approach to brand-building and corporate entrepreneurship. He's had a disruptive career at some of the world's most respected companies, including the Coca-Cola Company and Procter & Gamble.
 
New this year, Visit NC is offering a Meet & Greet session on Sunday afternoon. New and veteran attendees can meet the 14-member team. Use this opportunity to see how to get the most out of Visit NC and the annual tourism conference. Also new, Visit NC is offering facilitated networking opportunities during the Monday and Tuesday breakfast sessions. Plan to arrive early each morning for facilitated discussions based on region and budget size. 
 
Finishing touches are being finalized but, in the meantime, get discounted conference registration with the early-early bird rate, which is $425/person now through Nov. 15.
When you register, don't forget to share in the action with the hashtag #VisitNC365 on Twitter @NCTourism and Facebook @NCarolinaTourism.
 
For more information on the conference, contact Dana Grimstead at (919) 447-7761. Sponsorship opportunities are also available, offering a range of options.
Call Center in the spotlight
 
A cooperative effort by Visit NC's public relations team and state government partners led to coverage of the North Carolina Tourism Call Center in USA Today. The article, "The person giving you official travel advice may be an inmate," was carried by media outlets through the Gannett News Service for a total reach of 63,917,790. The online version of the article included a gallery with 25 photos.
 
Visit NC's PR team, which has a longstanding relationship with writer John Bordsen, connected him to the N.C. Dept. of Commerce Communications & External Affairs and Visitor Services staffs to coordinate a September visit to the N.C. Correctional Institution for Women, where the Call Center is based, in Raleigh. Working quickly because of deadline and the approach of Hurricane Florence, the Commerce staff worked with Bordsen and the N.C. Dept. of Public Safety's Division of Adult Correction & Juvenile Justice to arrange the visit and make sure all the requirements for a prison visit were met. Instrumental in making this happen at NCCIW were interim Regional Director Cynthia Bostic, Regional Operations Manager Herachio Haywood, and Public Information Officer Jerry Higgins. The Commerce and the Visit NC teams pulled background information together and fielded questions about the operation.
 
With Adult Correction's willingness to accommodate Bordsen's timeline, the visit yielded a report that covered the setting, partner visits to share information with the inmates, operation details and program metrics, and a sense of the women who work the phone lines. The final section of the article reveals the places the women would most like to visit if they could. Their choices included Asheville for its "real arts vibe" and Onslow County for island shelling. One Call Center operator serving a life sentence told Bordsen that her prison job is a way of "giving back to a society we wronged."
@VisitNC shares fall updates every Wednesday
Each Wednesday this fall, Visit North Carolina is inviting partners to share their fall travel updates on Twitter using #visitnc. During these Wednesday updates, @VisitNC will retweet or quote tweet all partner tweets that meet the following guidelines for added exposure to its audience of travelers, equipping visitors with real-time content to inspire travel. There are a few things to keep in mind.
 
Guidelines:
  • Tweets must feature #visitnc and either a fall color report or a fall activity update
  • Partner accounts will only receive one retweet or quote tweet per Wednesday
  • Information must be different than the previous week's submission; the same info won't be shared or posted twice
  • For a chance to be shared, tweets must be posted between 8:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m  each Wednesday 
Best practices:
  • High-resolution imagery helps tweets catch the eye of travelers and pique curiosity
  • Shortened links to more information increase the chances an interested traveler can take immediate action to plan a visit
  • Limit hashtag usage to one or two, including #visitnc
  • Create original posts - don't auto-share content from Facebook or Instagram to Twitter
  • Share the insider's perspective -make content more sharable by providing information that visitors can't find anywhere else 
For questions or assistance, contact Nick Parker at (919) 447-7787. The Wednesday fall retweets will take place through Nov. 21.
Visit NC's Taylor leads roundtable at Marketing Outlook Forum
 
Visit NC's Marlise Taylor was a moderator during the DMO Breakfast and Roundtable session at Marketing Outlook Forum, in Las Vegas, this week. The roundtable is held to share best practices and discuss issues and challenges facing destination market researchers from national, regional, state and provincial CVBs and travel offices. In addition, Jackson County TDA's Nick Breedlove led the "Emerging Leaders Luncheon and Strategies for Success" session, where N.C. State University's Whitney Knollenberg was a moderator.
Race Night at Bowman Gray premieres Monday
 
Race Night at Bowman Gray is set to premiere on Discovery Channel this Monday. Bowman Gray Stadium has been home to racing legends for decades and this season, the top competitors in modified racing are revving up their engines to compete for the Points Championship. This summer marked the Winston-Salem track's 70th season and the program features how the drivers will put their cars to the ultimate test and those who fall short will have to improve their skills and race cars each week in hopes of redemption on the track.
Air Canada to fly nonstop from Montreal to RDU

Air Canada will begin daily nonstop flights between Raleigh-Durham International Airport and Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) next June. The airline said today (Wednesday) that the new flights from Montreal to RDU will begin June 3.
Biltmore among the 'Most beautiful gardens In the USA'
 
Biltmore was included in the Forbes article "13 Ways To Enjoy The Most Beautiful Gardens In The USA Year-Round." Of Biltmore, the article notes, in part, "Its main building interior and expansive grounds are awash in a generous palette of color. Detailed, dramatic gardens entice. The Rose Garden, during summer months, alone hosts more than 250 beguiling rose varieties. Hike the network of trails and paths, along the French Broad River, through woodland and meadows of Deer Park. Be drawn into the warm welcome, which feels particularly pleasant during winter's chill, within the natural-light, pointed-glass-roof conservatory, where exotic and tropical plants and ferns flourish."
Nielsen new manager at I-85 North N.C. Welcome Center
 
Cherie Nielsen is the new manager of the I-85 North N.C. Welcome Center in Warren County. The Welcome Center is located on southbound I-85 at mile marker 231. She can be reached at the Welcome Center in Norlina at (252) 456-3236 or via cherie.nielsen@nccommerce.com.
 
North Carolina's nine Welcome Centers promote thousands of tourism-related businesses - attractions, accommodations, events and more - to visitors who are already in the state and who are actively seeking travel information. Located on Interstate highways just inside the state line, each Welcome Center has a statewide focus, with an emphasis on information for visitors traveling a particular interstate corridor. Professional, nationally-certified travel counselors located at each Welcome Center distribute the state's Official North Carolina Travel Guide, N.C. Dept. of Transportation's official state map and other marketing publications exclusively about North Carolina; offer detailed travel information in clean, well-maintained facilities; and book room reservations at no charge for visitors staying overnight in North Carolina. For more details, please see the Welcome Centers' website.
Ferguson new executive director for Elizabeth City Area CVB

Corrina Ferguson is the new executive director for the Elizabeth City Area CVB. She may be contacted at (252) 335-5330 or via corrina@visitelizabethcity.com
Repairing a leaking toilet saves water and money

Leaking toilets can be very wasteful and expensive.An average leaking toilet can waste 75,000 gallons of water annually, costing about $600 per toilet; and a 100-room property with 20 rooms containing leaking toilets could cost about $12,000 in additional water costs. Hotels and other lodging properties can save a considerable amount of money by checking their plumbing for leaks and repairing them right away. A major cause of toilet leaks is a warped or ill-fitting toilet flapper. That alone may waste up to 200 gallons of water daily. A misadjusted flush valve assembly is another water vampire. It is easy to determine if your toilet has a flapper leak by putting several drops of food coloring in the toilet tank. Wait a few minutes and inspect the water in the bowl to see if any of the coloring has entered the bowl. If so, there's a leak. There are several ways to repair a leaky toilet, including adjusting your flush valve assembly and replacing your flapper. These are very easy repairs and can save a significant amount of money and wasted water. For more information about repairing toilet leaks or more ways to conserve water, contact NC GreenTravel Initiative program manager Tom Rhodes at (919) 707-8140.
For the week of Oct. 25 on North Carolina Weekend, check out the Muddy Creek CafĂ© & Music Hall in Sparta. Explore the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill. Talk to the animals at the Conservators Center near Burlington. And discover the Beaufort Grocery Company in Beaufort. (Check local listings; segments are subject to change.) North Carolina Weekend is underwritten by Visit North Carolina. In addition, UNC-TV has made recent editions of North Carolina Weekend available online.
On average, every $105,705 spent by travelers in North Carolina during 2017 supported one job. For more North Carolina visitor spending information, visit the Economic Impact Studies, or contact Visit NC's Marlise Taylor at (919) 447-7748.

Upcoming Industry Meetings & Events

through Oct. 25 - National Trails Conference, Vancouver, Wash.
through Oct. 25 - Marketing Outlook Forum, Las Vegas, Nev.
through Oct. 26 - NC Recreation & Parks Conference, Winston-Salem
Oct. 29-30 - NC TIA Leadership Conference, Winston-Salem
Nov. 4-8 - NTA Travel Exchange, Milwaukee, Wis.
Nov. 5-7 - World Travel Market, London, U.K.
Nov. 7-9 - AARC Annual Conference, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Nov. 8-9 - MPI-CC Meeting, Spartanburg, S.C.
Nov. 14 - Visit NC Travel & Tourism Board Meeting, Cary
Dec. 13 - AENC Annual Showcase, Raleigh
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