Greater Raleigh Tourism e-News
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Greater Raleigh Tourism e-News… presented by the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau. This monthly e-News is the metamorphosis of two CVB communications tools (Visitor Advance and Matter of Fax). Please let us know about any news pertaining to Wake County's billion dollar visitor industry for possible inclusion in future issues.
IN VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1:
• New Convention Center/Hotel Update
• CIAA Tournament Gears Up for Fifth Year in Raleigh
• Clay Aiken Joins Friends and Family Campaign
• 2004 Raleigh/Wake County Visitors Guides Here
• Bureau & Three Museums Partner in The New York Times
• RaleighNow! Focuses on Education Outreach
• 2004 TGIF Weekend Promotion Unveiled
• Assisted CVB Bookings in January
• Sales News
• Sports News
• In the News
• On the Road
• Travel Trends
• Events in Greater Raleigh This Month
New Convention Center/Hotel Update
Raleigh officials moved forward in January with decisive votes on three major projects totaling almost $250 million that will make Raleigh a more viable meetings destination with construction of a new downtown convention center, a 400-room Marriott headquarters hotel and the reopening of Fayetteville Street to vehicular traffic. These three projects are among a billion dollars of new projects that will open by the end of 2007 in downtown Raleigh. The new convention center complex will result in 900 additional new jobs and more than $50 million additional economic benefit annually for Wake County.
The Raleigh City Council and Wake County Board of Commissioners approved a funding plan for a $180 million convention center and approved $20 million toward the public meeting areas within the $58 million hotel to be built by Stormont-Noble Development of Atlanta. The elected officials agreed to build the convention center complex using $85 of every $100 uncommitted revenue collected over the next 30 years from taxes on hotel rooms and prepared food and beverage. The original intent of the hotel occupancy tax and the prepared food and beverage tax was to pay for a new convention center.
In the coming months, officials will finalize a memorandum of understanding with hotel developer Stormont-Noble Development and agree upon conceptual plans for the new convention center being led by national architect Thompson Ventulett Stainback (TVS) and local architects Clearscapes/OBrien Atkins Associates. Convention center construction is expected to begin in January 2005 with completion in Spring 2007 with the hotel having a similar completion date. Click here for more details.
CIAA Tournament Gears Up for Fifth Year in Raleigh
One of the area's premier events -- the annual CIAA Basketball Tournament -- takes place from Feb. 23-28. It marks the event's fifth consecutive year at the RBC Center and the 59th year overall. Greater Raleigh's contract to host the tournament runs through 2005, and the bid process will begin this summer to host the 2006-2008 tournaments, with a decision by conference officials expected in the fall. The CIAA has enjoyed record success in Greater Raleigh, and ticket sales indicate this year will be no exception. Tickets are sold out except for some upper level and student tickets that are still available.
Overall tournament attendance surged from 42,811 in Winston-Salem in 1999 to 54,730 in Raleigh in 2000 to 74,729 in 2001, 80,446 in 2002 and 80,788 in 2003 (an 89-percent increase over 1999). The economic impact for the area was $7.8 million in 2000, $8.8 million in 2001, $9.7 million in 2002 and $10.2 million in 2003. www.ciaa2004.com.
Clay Aiken Joins Friends & Family Campaign
Clay Aiken recently joined forces with the Bureau via a friends and family campaign geared toward promoting visitation in his hometown area. The American Idol runner-up and American Music Award winner will send personalized invitations to people identified through www.VisitRaleigh.com/clay. To date, almost 2,800 letters have been sent.
New 2004 Visitors Guide Available
The Bureau's new 2004 Visitors Guide to Raleigh and Wake County has arrived and highlights many aspects of the City Life, Carolina Style campaign, including original cover artwork by Raleigh native Kay Hutchison. Growing from 68 to 84 pages, the free guide touts Greater Raleigh's TGIF weekend promotion, RaleighNow! cultural entertainment resource and Clay Aiken friends and family promotion. Among the new features in 2004 are expanded area maps and an eight-page dining guide listing some 400 restaurants by geographic locations, as well as expanded sections on golf and African American heritage sites. The CVB produces the Visitors Guide annually in January as a comprehensive resource for visitors to the area. Approximately 300,000 free copies will be distributed throughout the course of the year.
Bureau Partners with Three Museums
The Bureau teamed with the North Carolina Museums of Art, History and Natural Sciences on a cooperative advertising project in The New York Times touting their ongoing exhibitions and a special museum package. Some 100,000 inserts were distributed in the newspaper's DC and NC editions on Jan. 11. The Bureau built packages to support these exhibitions with 17 hotels and AAA Travel participating. More details can be found at www.VisitRaleigh.com/packages. The "do something different this weekend" campaign is supported with 35,000 inserts (half of which are distributed by Ticketmaster), five weeks of radio and three weeks of cable television advertising in the Triad market (plus a two-week Time Warner vignette), print advertising in Charlotte (Charlotte Observer, Food & Wine, InStyle and Travel & Leisure) and more. The campaign also generated public relations exposure through MSNBC.com and Travel Smart newsletter.
RaleighNow! Focuses on Education Outreach
RaleighNow!, the all-in-one, anytime resource for everything cultural, offers new 2004 features, including the distribution of messaging about the educational programming available throughout the year from all Wake County arts and cultural organizations. Education outreach becomes a new promotional page within RaleighNow.com this spring to feature this valuable programming like artists in residence programs, community outreach, distance learning, educational resources, family programs, hands-on experiences, lectures, performances and art, teacher workshops, tours and youth programs, etc. RaleighNow! is made possible through the generosity of private sector and media partners including its newest partner, Wachovia, which has recently signed on to support the new Education Outreach emphasis. For more information about promoting education outreach activities or becoming a RaleighNow! promotional partner, contact the Bureau's director of tourism and partnership marketing Shawn Braden at 919-645-2663 or sbraden@visitraleigh.com.
2004 TGIF Promotion Unveiled
A weekend getaway to North Carolina's Capital City area is easier with the enhanced 2004 Greater Raleigh TGIF promotion now entering its fourth year. When booking a TGIF rate throughout 2004, guests receive: (1) guaranteed lowest available TGIF rates at 29 participating hotel properties as low as $39.99 per night; (2) new 2004 Visitor Rewards Card good for discount offers to participating local attractions, stores, restaurants, museums and golf courses; (3) free $10 shopping card to either Crabtree Valley Mall or Triangle Center; (4) guaranteed lowest available TGIF golf rates any day of the week at six participating courses; (5) free Greater Raleigh Entertainment Guide. The campaign is supported through a dedicated web site (www.TGIFraleigh.com) and 80,000 promotional flyers distributed throughout the year.
Assisted Bookings in January
• 2004 PONY Softball Fastpitch Nationals, July 25-31, 2004 ($4 million EEI)
• Trinity Motivation, Sept.10-12, 2004 ($3.2 million EEI)
• 2004 Raleigh Relays, March 25-28, 2004 ($385,600 EEI)
• Southeast Decision Sciences Institute, Feb. 22-26, 2005 ($127,950 EEI)
• MC Communications, Sept. 15-18, 2004 ($119,010 EEI)
• ACC Women's Rugby Tournament, Feb. 14-15, 2004 ($13,350 EEI)
Sales News
The Sales Department hosted site inspections in January for Fountain Pens Shows International (June 2004; 660 attendees) and the National Biodynamic Farm and Garden Conference (November 2004; 200 attendees). It also coordinated efforts for 24 meeting professionals to attend the Jan. 6 architectural presentation of proposed convention center schemes; initiated survey effort to more than 50 others not able to attend; and helped recruit attendees for the most recent meeting planner input meeting for the new convention center on Feb. 11.
Sports News
SAS Soccer Park in Cary is competing against College Station, Texas for the 2005 NCAA Women's Soccer College Cup. It hosted the event in 2003 and will do so again in 2004. Representatives from N.C. State University, Capital Area Soccer League and the Greater Raleigh CVB made a presentation to the NCAA women's soccer committee on Feb. 10 in Indianapolis. A decision is expected later this spring. SAS Soccer Park will also host the 2005 NCAA Men's Soccer College Cup.
With the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament returning to Raleigh next month for the first time in 22 years, the GRCVB and its bid partners representing N.C. State and the RBC Center have submitted a bid to be an NCAA tournament site in 2007 or 2008. A decision is expected this summer.
In The News
What does Raleigh have in common with San Juan, Boston, Mexico, Dubai, India, Vail, Copenhagen, Macao and Santa Fe? It's been touted by Successful Meetings Magazine (December 2003) as 10 to Watch as a new meetings mecca on the horizon. Meanwhile, the Raleigh area ranked as third-most cost-effective destination for corporate meetings, according to results generated by GetThere. Jacksonville and Columbus topped the list.
Check out Our State Magazine (February 2004) featuring a two-page spread (appropriate for the large meal portions) about Big Ed's City Market Restaurant in which Watkins is dubbed "a Rhodes scholar of food." The North Carolina Museum of Art's Defying Gravity exhibition is featured in Endless Vacation Magazine (January/February 2004), the African American Cultural Complex is profiled in Multicultural Marketing News (January/February 2004), the Vertigo Diner is touted in USA Today (January 2, 2004), Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit appeared in American Way (November 2003) and Raleigh's Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration was in Knoxville News Sentinel (December 28, 2003).
On the Road in January
• Religious Conference Management Association annual convention in Pittsburgh
• Meeting Professionals International professional education conference in San Antonio
• Association for Convention Operations Management annual convention in Indianapolis
• National Soccer Coaches Association annual convention in Charlotte
• North Carolina Motorcoach Association annual meeting in Asheville
Travel Trends
Hotel Web Booking Expected To Soon Surpass Telephone Sales. Maybe it will happen in the spring, or perhaps the summer. Either way, one thing is certain: Sometime this year, Hilton Hotels expects that sales over its branded Web sites will surpass those of its telephone reservations lines. Choice Hotels also is forecasting that this year its Web bookings will outpace those of its call centers. Cendant is making a similar prediction for its hotel-brand sites.
The U.S. hotel industry is in the early stages of an upswing, following the long-endured bottoming-out that began in mid-2001. The upswing is expected to carry through 2005 and bring with it an improved climate for hotel investment. These findings were revealed in a recent joint study by PKF Consulting's Hospitality Research Group and Torto Wheaton Research. Rates will begin to show increases in major markets beginning in 2004. Over the next eight quarters, the top ten U.S. markets for full-service hotels, in terms of RevPAR growth, are expected to be the following: Raleigh, NC; Boston, MA; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Denver, CO; Northern New Jersey; Dallas, TX; Nashville, TN; and Washington, DC.
Business travel appears headed for a rebound later this year and into 2005 as the economy continues to improve and international tensions abate, according to a new survey of business travel management professionals conducted by the National Business Travel Association. 71% of the business travel managers participating in the survey believe that business travel will rebound significantly in 2004 and into 2005, with 54% predicting the recovery to occur sometime this year.
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