Thank you to our 2022 Sponsors!
The VA1 Governor’s Tourism Summit is brought to you by the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association, the Virginia Association of Destination Marketing Organizations, and the Virginia Tourism Corporation.
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| Host City Sponsor | Visit Norfolk | Norfolk, Virginia is a city on the water but never watered down. Built on character, by characters, it's a melting pot of people, cultures, and ideas. Find inspiration on their shores. Explore their neighborhoods. Share their love of art. Experience their local flavors. Walk in their history. And never be afraid to loosen your sails and go wherever the wind takes you. |
| Platinum Sponsor | LeisureMedia360 | Founded in 1972, LeisureMedia360 is an award-winning publisher of state, regional, and local travel guides, city and regional magazines, and quality-of-life publications. Digital is also a core competency. For 10 years, our digital and programmatic advertising opportunities have aided 100+ clients. Leisure is proud to be the official publishing partner of Virginia Tourism Corporation for its Virginia Travel Guide. |
| Opening Reception Sponsor | Sway Creative Labs | Sway Creative Labs uses creativity, curiosity, and collaboration to propel modern brands forward. From campaign strategy and execution, digital experiences, and identity development, to broadcast production, animation, and programmatic media planning and purchasing — Sway has the experience and ability to match the medium with the message. |
| Tuesday General Session and Breakfast sponsor | Gray Destination Marketing | Gray Destination Marketing is a subsidiary of Gray Media Group dedicated to creating lasting connections between travelers and destinations. By leveraging Gray Media’s nationwide assets, we create content that connects and deliver an audience that converts. Gray Destination Marketing, we deliver the audience, you deliver the adventure. |
| Monday Dessert Sponsor | Adara | Adara helps brands win in the fast-paced digital economy by providing predictive intelligence for optimal consumer engagement. Adara connects destinations via digital advertising to 1.7 billion digital identities across 130 countries. This enables destinations to deliver personalized messages across customer journeys, driving (and reporting on) optimum revenue from every interaction. |
| Student Conference Sponsor | Dominion Energy | We employ over 17,000 people in 13 states, providing reliable, affordable, clean energy to nearly 7 million customers. We're creating a diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects the communities we serve. We invest in communities where we live and work, and protect our natural resources. We believe Actions Speak Louder. |
| Super Session Sponsor | TripAdvisor | Tripadvisor is the world’s largest and most preferred travel guidance platform, helping hundreds of millions of people each month become better travelers. Consumers around the globe turn to Tripadvisor at every stage of the trip planning journey - from dreaming, to booking, to sharing their experiences. |
| Super Session Sponsor | The Vacation Channel | For over forty years, The Vacation Channel has been a leader in tourism marketing through fun and engaging videos. In addition to producing high-quality visuals, they create custom Roku and AmazonTV streaming channels, reaching visitors who are trip-planning and offering advertisers new strategies through OTT. |
| Super Session Sponsor | Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) | The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) is responsible for promoting, sustaining, and expanding the availability of passenger and commuter rail service in the Commonwealth. VPRA’s Transforming Rail in Virginia Program will double Amtrak state-supported service and increase Virginia Railway Express (VRE) service in Virginia over the next decade. Our vision is to deliver passenger rail service as an integrated, affordable, convenient travel option that benefits the Commonwealth. We currently sponsor four Amtrak passenger rail routes across the state serving popular destinations like Richmond, Roanoke, Norfolk, Newport News, Williamsburg, Alexandria, and DC. |
| Content Marketing Workshop Sponsor | VistaGraphics, Inc. | With over 37 years experience, VistaGraphics has its roots in hospitality publishing having published its first such title in 1985. Their evolution as a media company includes the addition of the most current digital marketing solutions customized for the tourism and destination marketing industry. |
| Monday PM Break Sponsor | LoopMe | LoopMe, the leading outcomes-based platform, closes the loop on digital advertising. By leveraging AI to optimize media delivery in real-time, LoopMe drives measurable uplift for business outcomes and more effective advertising across online and offline marketing goals, including brand lift, purchase intent, consideration, foot traffic and sales. LoopMe’s award-winning PurchaseLoop is 2x more effective than traditional advertising optimization, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence to optimize digital advertising to real-world brand outcomes. |
| Tuesday AM Break sponsor | Epsilon | |
| Tuesday AM Break Sponsor | Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau | The Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) is responsible for promoting year-round leisure, business, meetings and conventions, international and sports travel to Virginia’s most populous city. Virginia Beach also is the number one vacation destination in Virginia. As the official destination marketing organization for the coastal city, the Virginia Beach CVB is responsible for ongoing advocacy for the tourism and hospitality industry – which is one of Virginia Beach’s largest industries. To drive tourism revenue that powers our local economy, the Virginia Beach CVB also focuses on attracting tourism product development to ensure our destination stays competitive. |
| Entertainment Sponsor | Imagine Design Creative and Marketing | Imagine is a branding and marketing agency specializing in travel and tourism. We build unique, authentic brands for places that people love – in ways that our clients love. |
| Key Card Sponsor | FPIS  | FPIS is a brochure distribution and travel marketing company that has been serving the tourism industry for decades. |
| Supporting Sponsor | Advance Travel and Tourism | Advance Travel and Tourism partners with DMOs, attractions, and vacation rental companies in the southeast for innovative, creative, and measurable digital marketing campaigns. |
| Speaker Sponsor | Stephanie A. Smith Communications | Share your story and extend the guest experience with purpose and strategy that elevates your brand to reach your goals |
| Speaker Sponsor | Applied Strategies and Principles | Applied Strategies and Principles provides unique solutions with a customized approach through conversations, research, focus forums and more. Its experience with research, communication and education make it distinctively skilled to tackle issues facing firms as they grow and evolve into their next stage of development. |
| Media Sponsor | Virginia Business Magazine | Virginia Business is the only publication dedicated to covering economic activity in every sector and every region of the state. Since its creation, Virginia Business magazine and digital media has won awards, attracted loyal readers and established a reputation as a “must read” for anybody who wants to stay abreast of commercial events in the commonwealth. |
| Event Sponsor | Cvent | Cvent is a leading meetings, events, and hospitality management technology provider with more than 4,000 employees, 25,000 customers, and 300,000 users worldwide. The Cvent Event Cloud offers software solutions to event planners and marketers for online event registration, venue selection, event management and marketing, onsite solutions, and attendee engagement. Cvent's suite of products automate and simplify the planning process to maximize the impact of events. The Cvent Hospitality Cloud partners with hotels and venues to help them drive group and corporate travel business. |