Celebrate National Travel & Tourism Week with VRLTA!

This Week, May 3-9, is National Travel & Tourism Week Even though we're not traveling just yet, VRLTA is joining with U.S. Travel and Virginia Tourism Corporation in promoting National Travel & Tourism Week (NTTW). This year, the theme is the "Spirit of Travel." DMOs and CVBs across the state have shared their plans for the week; read on to see what your counterparts are doing.

NTTW additional resources: U.S. Travel's NTTW Toolkit - graphics, templates, talking points, creative ideas, and more! Information about VTC's planned efforts around the week To all of you working to promote your area, city, county, or attraction, THANK YOU for the work you do to share all the amazing places, people, and things about our state.

VRLTA wants to know: WHERE in VA do you wish you were? We can't wait until we can get back to exploring all those amazing places. We've put together this fun sign you can print out, label, capture in a photo, and post using these hashtags: #wishiwerethereVA #VirginiaisforLovers #SpiritofTravel #LoveVA #VirginiaIsForRestaurantLovers #VRLTA and #nttw20 - maybe you'll be featured this week! Click here for a pdf suitable for printing!

What are Virginia's DMOs and CVBs doing to promote NTTW? We already know that Virginia's travel and tourism people are so creative. Even in the midst of the pandemic, you've come up with great ways to promote your cities, counties, and attractions. Many of you are adding to the calendar that VTC is using, but others are adding to that! VRLTA is pleased to share some of the amazing work you're doing and the things you're rolling out this week. Thank you to all who shared their plans and ideas - if we didn't hear from you yet, there's still time (share your plans by reaching out to marketing@vrlta.org )! We'll continue to feature your great ideas all week.

Check out these videos from around the state... Virginia Tourism Corporation has produced "We'll Be Waiting" as well as a Tourism Matters series of videos (find the full list here) Richmond Region Tourism gives us "When You're Ready" Norfolk shares "When this is Over" Winchester created "Dreaming of Winchester"

Kings Dominion's POV virtual roller coaster ride! Monticello entrance hall, seen on the 360* virtual tour. Learn about quilting from the Virginia Quilt Museum.

Virtual Tours are a great way to support attractions... Many CVBs and DMOs are featuring their area attractions one day this week. We took a look at what some locations around the Commonwealth are doing, and we found some really cool virtual tours and ot her view- or listen-at-home resources... Mount Vernon is offering a virtual tour of the home Colonial Williamsburg's virtual tour takes you inside the Governor's palace The Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond has curator talks, lectures, and more Visit Hampton has links to four virtual tours: the Hampton Carousel, the Virginia Air & Space Center, the Hampton History Museum, and the Miss Hampton II Norfolk has a Virtual Norfolk Experience event scheduled for May 7 at 7:00 p.m. on Facebook Monticello offers a variety of virtual tours Harrisonburg's Virginia Quilt Museum has a virtual tour and the Explore More Discovery Museum has opportunities for kids to explore from home The Birthplace of County Music in Bristol has a YouTube channel with a video series Norfolk's Chrysler Museum of Art has a 360* virtual tour to get up close to exhibits You can take a self-guided mural tour of the Virginia Beach Creative District or Richmond Kings Dominion lets you take a virtual ride on a roller coaster The Omni Homestead has a podcast series, Beyond the Tower VTC has a listing of many more!

Takeout Tuesday is a fantastic way to support restaurants... Almost all the localities around the state are promoting Takeout Tuesday to support their area restaurants, and many are also celebrating their craft breweries and other beverage producers - THANK YOU! To connect with what VRLTA is doing around TakeoutTuesday each week, please add the hashtags #VirginiaEatsLocal , #TakeoutTuesdayVA , and #VirginiaIsForRestaurantLovers on your related posts. VRLTA will be promoting Takeout Tuesday this week with a fun Taco Tuesday & Cinco de Mayo tie-in.

You've got a lot of other creative ideas! We love the collaboration that you all encourage, and thought we'd share some of the fresh ideas you sent to us! Here are some of the best from around the state... Some localities have created location-specific Zoom backgrounds, including Martinsville (to be released daily) and Hampton (see below) Martinsville is also launching a 'perfect itinerary' event, where social media followers can vote on an element of the itinerary each day, and they've created an official Spotify playlist and coloring pages Alexandria is tying their NTTW efforts in to their participation in the Conde Nast Readers' Choice Awards - they're in the running for Best Small City in the US for the third year in a row Fairfax County is hosting a virtual happy hour to celebrate NTTW Norfolk is offering free online exercise classes on Facebook to support local businesses on their Movin' Monday; the city will also be sharing video of past performances of local performing arts groups on Saturday Charlottesville and Norfolk are recognizing local heroes who are making their communities better as part of their efforts this week - Norfolk with Feel Good Friday, and Charlottesville with a "Stories from Local Tourism Heroes" feature on Monday Harrisonburg has launched a "Love Lives Here" campaign, encouraging residents to make their own images with the word Love

One of Harrisonburg's submissions to the Love Lives Here campaign

Hampton's virtual Zoom background options

Thank you for all you do! VRLTA is proud to partner with, represent, and support the Commonwealth's DMOs and CVBs. Thank you for all of the amazing work you do each day to celebrate our state!