Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau Receives Virginia Corporation DMO WanderLove Recovery Grant for Tourism Marketing

This is a new grant made available to Virginia’s Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) across the Commonwealth that have been heavily impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic to fund recovery marketing initiatives. $866,504 in marketing grant funds were awarded to 90 Destination Marketing Organizations as part of the DMO WanderLove Recovery Grant program.

The CACVB will use the VTC WanderLove grant funds to market Charlottesville & Albemarle County to potential visitors located in key feeder markets such as Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area in North Carolina. The marketing campaign will feature local outdoor recreation opportunities, orchards, wineries, historic sites and the historic pedestrian Downtown Mall.

The campaign will also include a recently produced music video, created in collaboration with local band Kendall Street Company, to further encourage socially distanced visitation to the region.

”We are grateful for the support we receive from the Virginia Tourism Corporation,” said Courtney Cacatian, Executive Director of the CACVB. “This grant program adds a much-needed boost to our marketing efforts during this difficult and unprecedented time and will go a long way to drive visitation to our local Tourism and Hospitality partner businesses and non-profit organizations.”

As Virginia begins reopening, there is a lot of pent-up demand for leisure travel and people are seeking safe, close-to-home destinations that allow for social distancing and access to open spaces. With this in mind, the WanderLove campaign provides travel inspiration for road trips, outdoor recreation, hidden gems, small towns, and Virginia’s signature LOVEworks program.

“Virginia tourism is a critical sector of our economy and has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic,” said Governor Ralph Northam. “Getting travelers back on the road and spending money in our cities and towns is one of the fastest ways to inject dollars back into our economy and our communities. The Virginia Tourism Corporation’s DMO WanderLove Recovery Grants gives localities the ability to market their destination as safe and welcoming when visitors are ready to resume travel.”

Tourism is one of the Commonwealth’s largest economic engines, with visitors to Charlottesville & Albemarle County spending $654 million in 2018, supporting nearly 6,000 work opportunities and contributing $22 million in local taxes. The tourism and hospitality industries have also been among the hardest-hit by the pandemic, experiencing decreased revenue and job loss, along with the temporary closure of many tourism-related businesses. A revived tourism economy can help spur new economic activity and inject critical funds back into Virginia communities.

###

About the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau

The Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau (CACVB) welcomes thousands of visitors to the region each year from all over the world who are seeking a variety of unique experiences in history, food, wine, spirits and adventure. The CACVB serves as the global resource for marketing the tourism assets of the City of Charlottesville and County of Albemarle, and assists tour operators, meeting planners, and other groups in planning visits to the destination. The CACVB’s mission is to enhance the economic prosperity of the people of the City and County by promoting, selling and marketing the area as a destination, in pursuit of the meetings and tourism markets.