Distinguished visitors

Event planners and hospitality industry experts worldwide will converge upon Richmond to grow their professional networks, discuss the latest developments in the tourism sector and celebrate travel in Virginia during the 2023 VA1 Governor’s Tourism Summit.

Taking place Nov. 12-14 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, the event will offer workshops and classes focusing on topics such as sports tourism, return-on-investment data, digital marketing, workforce development, accessibility and the outlook for the meetings and events industry. This year’s theme is “Get in the Game.”

Attendees will take part in general and breakout sessions on Monday, Nov. 13, and Tuesday, Nov. 14, during a conference that offers an impressive lineup of headliners, keynote and session speakers.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will share remarks during the VA1 opening general session and lunch on Nov. 13.

“Virginia sets the national standard for tourism, creating jobs and injecting critical dollars back into our communities,” Youngkin says. “Tourism is the cornerstone of future development, cultivating necessary job expansion and growth to help Virginia reach new heights. I look forward to the innovation that will come from this year’s VA1 Governor’s Tourism Summit.”

The summit will attract about 450 attendees, plus exhibitors, with its “tremendous amount of educational content,” says Eric Terry, president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association, one of the organizers of the annual summit, which is hosted in a different location in the commonwealth each year. (Last year’s event was held in Norfolk.)

Among the major challenges in organizing an event of this scale, Terry says, is the number of hotel rooms needed to accommodate attendees, speakers and exhibitors. “We are limited in terms of places that we can do this conference, even in Virginia.” As of mid-September, rooms at the downtown Richmond Marriott near the convention center were sold out, but rooms were available at the nearby Hilton Richmond Downtown.

In 2022, visitors spent a record $30.3 billion in Virginia, a 20.3% increase from 2021, Youngkin announced in August.

“Visitor spending in Virginia exceeded $30 billion for the first time in our history, reaching $30.3 billion, and is now about 4% higher than it was prior to the pandemic,” notes Virginia Tourism Corp.’s vice president of research and strategy, Dan Roberts, who will speak during two summit sessions.

“To bring that into perspective, that means visitors are spending $83 million a day in the commonwealth. The entire tourism industry, from our hotels and restaurants to our local and regional destination marketing organizations and [convention and visitors bureaus] have all had a hand in driving that recovery,” Roberts adds.

Sarah Dandashy, who runs the website “Ask a Concierge,” is another headliner speaker at this year’s opening session and lunch. An author and TV personality, she has more than 18 years of experience in the luxury hotel industry.

“Despite economic and employment challenges, Americans are still making travel a priority. And it shows,” Dandashy says, but she notes that “the meeting planning industry is still rebounding — and it continues to look positive, but today’s group business demands have shifted.”

Ongoing trends that impact meeting planners, she notes, include “inflation; the decentralized workforce; the well-being of attendees; issues around diversity, equity and inclusion; technology; and sustainability.”

Business travel, though, is one segment that hasn’t fully recovered in Virginia, which impacts the hospitality industry in Northern Virginia, as well as bookings at large conference venues and work for meeting planners, Roberts notes.

“At the end of 2022, business travel spending throughout the commonwealth has only recovered to 77% of 2019 levels,” he says, while noting that events like the summit help people in the meetings and events industry learn from their colleagues and adapt.

“VA1 represents the incredible value of meeting face to face to share information, look ahead and build meaningful relationships throughout our industry, which are all reasons that Virginia and the travel industry nationwide can expect a full recovery in business travel,” Roberts says.