Norfolk focuses on cruise and entertainment tourism

The “city surrounded by water” — Norfolk — is going through “an evolution, putting in necessary investments to stay on top of the times” as a tourism destination, says Sean Washington, the city’s director of economic development. The city is expanding its cruise center to accommodate an influx of passengers year-round, has broken ground on a casino complex, and is sprucing up its arts and culture hub.

It’s also making improvements to its airport, Washington says, to “make the traveler’s experience as efficient and convenient as possible. … Now, it’s a lot of dollars, but it’s necessary that it is invested in the overall experience of the traveler.”

The amount of the city’s investment in various projects is not unusual, Washington says. But the timing of it is compressed because “so many of our older assets needed work at once.”

The Nauticus Half Moone Cruise Center’s plunge into the year-round cruise business is set to launch Feb. 11.

The 12-deck Carnival Sunshine setting sail weekly from Norfolk to the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Caribbean holds about 3,300 people.

“So, every weekend, 3,300 people are arriving and 3,300 people are disembarking,” says Stephen Kirkland, executive director of Nauticus maritime museum. “They’ll be shopping, eating, staying in hotels. We expect people to be driving in and people will be flying into the Norfolk airport. We hope people driving will stop on the way in or the way home” and visit other Virginia attractions.

About 300,000 passengers are expected to move through Norfolk annually, starting this year. Roughly $12 million in enhancements will go into making that traffic flow smoothly. The city is footing the bill.

The 80,000-square-foot facility that is home to Virginia’s only cruise ship program shares its space with Nauticus’ Maritime Discovery Center, Sail Nauticus — a Nauticus Foundation program for underserved youth, and the historic Battleship Wisconsin, one of the largest battleships ever built by the U.S. Navy.

One of the key improvements to the city-owned cruise center, according to Kirkland, is the replacement of cramped elevators and escalators with a sloped circular ramp that will make boarding and exiting ships more efficient. “People, luggage. Everything from Xerox paper to lobster tails needs to have a quick turnaround. Every five minutes saved helps,” he says.

Work also is being done to improve U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities to handle the increasing number of passengers. Kirkland says mobile customs kiosks are being added for efficiency.

An outdoor terrace area at the center is being enclosed to provide air-conditioned seating space for about 600 passengers waiting to board. That’s expected to be completed this fall.

Norfolk is already a port of call for several cruise lines, Kirkland notes. “It works well. Ships arrive during week and people take tours of Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown” and of Norfolk itself, he says.

Still, the booming cruise line industry has been meeting with resistance at overcrowded ports of call around the globe. Some residents in Yorktown protested a Princess pilot program that would have brought thousands of tourists to its small port, so those plans were put on hold.

“We’ve not had any real concerns here in Norfolk, but we do recognize that this heightened cruise activity needs to be carefully balanced with other priorities in the community,” says Kirkland, who has met with local businesses owners, hoteliers and civic league leaders.

Carnival began sailing from Norfolk in 2002, and in 2023 operated a six-month cruise schedule from May to October. A total of 250,000 cruise passenger visits last year made it the busiest season in the city’s history.  Norfolk’s expansion is a sign of how the cruise industry has changed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Kirkland adds. Before, cruises were mostly out of New York City, Miami and Los Angeles. “There are more ports now. They’re bringing the ships to the people.”

Doubling down

Last year, Norfolk took its first step toward joining three other Virginia cities in the casino business. In October 2024, the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Boyd Gaming, its corporate partner, broke ground on a commercial casino resort on the north bank of the Elizabeth River, near Harbor Park. This came after multiple delays following city voters approving a casino referendum in 2020, as well as a change in the business partnership.

Plans for the $750 million Norfolk resort call for a 200-room hotel, eight food and beverage outlets, and a casino floor with 1,500 slot machines and 50 table games.

It is expected to open in late 2027, but in the meantime, a temporary casino will be built on the property, which is expected to open in November, says David Strow, spokesman for Boyd Gaming. “The transitional facility will be at the front of the site, using a minimum amount of space. We want to leave ourselves plenty of room” for the permanent casino, he notes.

The new casino originally was to be named Head Waters Resort & Casino, but “it will have a different brand,” Strow says. A new name has not been announced.

“We’re looking to be a best-in-market facility. We want to attract people not only from the Hampton Roads region but from other states, other markets,” Strow says. The new casino “will create hundreds of new jobs. It will create tax revenues and purchasing opportunities for local business.”

Once it opens, the Norfolk casino will join the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol, Rivers Casino Portsmouth, and Danville’s Caesars Virginia, as well as Petersburg’s Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia, which is expected to open in 2026.

The region already has plenty of reasons for people to visit, Strow adds. “Our hope is to add to that experience. We could partner down the road with cruise ship traffic. That could be an opportunity. We believe there are synergies to partnering with others in the community.”

To give people even more reason to visit, Norfolk is sprucing up its entertainment venues. At the end of this season, the Chrysler Hall performing arts theater, which features Broadway shows such as “Mamma Mia!” and “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical,” will shut down for one full season.

The upgrade will make loading and unloading theater sets quicker, Washington says. Currently, “we can’t turn the shows as fast as we want to.”

After the lights are back up at Chrysler Hall, the city plans to close the Scope Arena for renovations, Washington says. “We’ll do them back-to-back, then have them both back online.”

The Scope Plaza — the shared space between Scope and Chrysler — has been underused, Washington adds, and the overhaul of the buildings will provide an excuse for more outdoor entertainment. In August 2024, thousands of music fans showed up to the plaza for the Cousinz Festival, a one-day music event with headliners Erykah Badu, Larry June and Jermaine Dupri, and organizers announced the festival will return in 2025.

Plans for the city-owned former Military Circle mall property also are shaping up. Washington says the project will center on a tournament-caliber ice rink complex, plus residential, retail and hotel space. “If we want to have sports tourism, we don’t want to duplicate what’s being done in surrounding cities,” such as Virginia Beach’s emphasis on volleyball, Washington says.

There’s also still discussion about what should happen at the struggling MacArthur Center mall, which was purchased by the city in 2023 for approximately $18 million. Washington says MacArthur Center is ready “for some big developments.” As of late 2024, the city has completed studies and met with developers, he notes. “There’s a lot of great momentum. Everybody was highly impressed with the city and are wanting to move forward.”

Taking off

All the visitors attracted to the area have “dramatically increased demand” at Norfolk International Airport, says Mark Perryman, president and CEO of the Norfolk Airport Authority, which runs the airport.

Traffic has increased from 4.1 million passengers in 2022 to 4.86 million in 2024 at an airport that “hasn’t had major improvements other than upgrading parking structures” in more than 20 years, according to Perryman. But that’s changing.

To prepare the airport for the coming decades, a billion-dollar improvement project is underway to update critical infrastructure and add amenities. Among the biggest changes is a new $400 million departures terminal, with groundbreaking expected in summer 2026.

Already completed is an update of the airport’s primary runway, which returned to full service in December 2024, following the replacement of older concrete surfaces with easier-to-maintain asphalt. A new 80-space “park-and-wait” area opened just in time for the 2024 Christmas rush, and three additional gates in Concourse A are expected to be finished by November.

Other projects include a new U.S. Customs Inspection facility, which will replace one that is more than 25 years old, and by summer a new moving walkway connecting parking decks is expected to be operational, Perryman says.

Also in the works is a 165-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel, connected directly to the terminal. It’s set to be open in early 2026, Perryman says, and it fulfills a long-term need.

“Norfolk and Virginia Beach have a shortage of hotel rooms. We don’t have anything really close to the airport — the closest hotel is about three miles away. This will be nice for early flights and late arrivals,” he says.

Another big project is a $200 million consolidated rental car facility scheduled for groundbreaking this year. The new facility will be more efficient, Perryman says. Rental cars will be serviced on site, and “we need the parking spaces” the rental car companies have been using in the parking garages.

Sprinkled among the larger projects are smaller improvements to make airport travel more pleasant, including new seating, phone chargers and more vending machines.

For all these improvements, Perryman notes that the airport is mainly covering costs itself. “We don’t receive any tax money from any municipalities — not from the general revenue, not from property taxes.”

The airport receives some grant money but, for the most part, “we use user fees to support ourselves,” he says. The Norfolk Airport Authority had $98 million in total revenue in fiscal 2024, up from $87 million the prior fiscal year. Hotel and rental car companies, meanwhile, are providing their own financing for their projects. Perryman’s also looking ahead to increased cruise travel and its impact on the airport.

“How do we get people between the airport and the port?” he asks. “We don’t have the capacity with taxis, Uber and Lyft. We’re looking at having dedicated shuttles.”

It’s all part of making the Norfolk “the best flying experience possible,” he says. “We want to make our piece of it as customer-friendly as possible.”

Norfolk at a glance

Located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk’s vast waterfront acreage has earned it the nickname of “the Mermaid City.” Home to Naval Station Norfolk — the world’s largest naval base — the city has capitalized on its strategic location as a hub for both defense and international shipping. However, Norfolk has grown beyond its maritime roots, developing a vibrant food and entertainment scene. The third most populous city in Virginia (behind Virginia Beach and Chesapeake), Norfolk is also a higher education powerhouse, home to Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School (now part of ODU), Tidewater Community College, ECPI University and Tidewater Tech.

Population
230,930

Major attractions
Tourist attractions in the Mermaid City include Nauticus maritime museum, which just reopened after a $21.5 million renovation, and the Battleship Wisconsin. Norfolk Botanical Garden has 60 different gardens and offers a popular holiday lights display. The Chrysler Museum of Art, the Barry Art Museum at ODU, which is undergoing a significant expansion, and the Glass Light Hotel & Gallery collectively have the largest collection of glass to be viewed for free in the world.

Professional sports
Norfolk Tides Minor League Baseball (Baltimore Orioles affiliate)
Norfolk Admirals East Coast Hockey League

Top convention hotels
Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel 45,570 square feet of event space, 466 rooms
Norfolk Waterside Marriott 68,879 square feet of event space, 407 rooms
Hilton Norfolk The Main 60,000 square feet of event space, 300 rooms

Top employers
U.S. Department of Defense (10,000-plus employees)
Sentara Health (7,500 to 9,999 employees)
Norfolk Public Schools (7,500 to 9,999 employees)
Norfolk city government (2,500 to 4,999 employees)
Old Dominion University (2,500 to 4,999 employees)