CHARLOTTESVILLE ALBEMARLE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU EARNED POSITIVE MEDIA COVERAGE FOR THE DESTINATION ON A REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL SCALE IN 2017

Charlottesville, VA, Dec. 28, 2017 -- To help support its mission, the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau (CACVB) maintains ongoing and robust media relations efforts to promote the Charlottesville area as a premier tourist and meetings destination. The articles generated as a result of these efforts are unpaid, third-party endorsements of the area that ultimately reach a wide variety of audiences throughout the country and the world. Media outlets which published articles due to the CACVB’s recent media relations efforts include: BuzzFeed, Travel + Leisure, Southern Living, Fodor’s, FOX News, CNN Travel, USA Today, The Travel Channel, and Orbitz. The media value of these articles is in the millions of dollars and amounts to free advertising for the Charlottesville & Albemarle County area. In the year 2017 alone, the accrued earned media value resulting from the CACVB’s media relations efforts has reached nearly seven million dollars.

Additionally, the CACVB hosted several groups of travel writers and journalists in 2017, which subsequently generated a large amount of positive media coverage about Charlottesville & Albemarle County. These articles appeared in media outlets on a regional, national, and international scale and helped share the story of the Charlottesville area’s tourism assets with a diverse array of audiences and readers throughout the world.

Some of the more notable media visits included groups of international travel journalists who came to the Charlottesville area prior to and after the IPW trade show in Washington, D.C. in June 2017. Attended by more than 6,000 delegates, IPW, sponsored by the U.S. Travel Association, is the travel industry’s premier international marketplace and the largest generator of travel to the United States. Another group of travel journalists visited the region prior to the Mid-Atlantic Tourism Public Relations Alliance (MATPRA) Media Marketplace in September. During all of these visits, travel journalists experienced the region’s historic sites, vibrant vineyards, and the historic pedestrian Downtown Mall which resulted in a flurry of positive articles about Charlottesville & Albemarle County.

About the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau (CACVB):
In addition to serving as the global resource for marketing the tourism assets of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia, through www.visitcharlottesville.org, the CACVB assists tour operators, meeting planners, reunions and other groups in planning visits to the destination.  CACVB’s mission is “to enhance the economic prosperity of City and County by promoting, selling and marketing the City of Charlottesville and County of Albemarle, as a destination, in pursuit of the meetings and tourism markets.”  CACVB operates the Downtown Visitor Center (610 E Main St) which is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a second visitor center, the Albemarle Tourism and Adventure Center in downtown Crozet (5791 Three Notch’d Rd) at the historic train depot; it is open Wednesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Sunday Noon - 5:00 p.m. The CACVB also provides a touch-screen kiosk at Monticello’s Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center.  The official website of the CACVB is www.visitcharlottesville.org.  In addition, the organization manages powerful social media channels; ExperienceCharlottesville on Facebook, @VisitCVille on Twitter, CVilleVA on Pinterest, and @CharlottesvilleVA on Instagram and Vimeo.

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0b83843d-481a-4ecf-b4a7-34d37274cdae

Brantley Ussery
Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau
(434) 970-3008
[email protected]