We just completed our annual NC Governor’s Conference on Hospitality and Tourism, with record high attendance of more than 530 tourism, business and government leaders from across the state. We truly did “Rally in Raleigh,” learning a lot from each other and from state and national experts. Despite the wintry weather and the challenges of the economy, attendees were upbeat, especially after hearing from Governor Perdue and Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco.
Both the Governor and the Secretary emphasized how important tourism is to the state’s economy ($16.5 billion in visitor spending in 2007) and what a phenomenal number of natural, cultural and heritage tourism assets we have in North Carolina. We also heard from New York Times best-selling author and branding guru Dan Heath and online marketing expert Hannah Parramore, both of whom provided excellent ideas on how to improve promotional and branding strategies. Finally, we presented the state's marketing and co-operative advertising plan for the upcoming year, which allows local tourism agencies and businesses to leverage their advertising budgets and marketing messages by working in concert with us. The plan was well-received, and we look forward to implementing it with their help!
By working together, we can continue to support over 14,000 tourism-related businesses and non-profit organizations across the state and support jobs for over 190,000 North Carolinians who earn their living the tourism industry. To learn more about our marketing programs visit http://www.nccommerce.com/tourismservices or to plan a trip in NC, visit us at http://www.visitnc.com.