2023 Sponsors

Thank you to all of our sponsors, who help make the 2023 VA1 Governers Tourism Conference a reality.

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.

Host City Sponsor:
Richmond Region Tourism
As the Region’s destination organization, we are experts who have a deep love for the community in which we live, work, and play. We enrich the lives of our residents and visitors by sharing the unique culture and humanity that is the Richmond Region.
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.
Travel Sponsor:
Amtrak
Amtrak Virginia has eight roundtrips daily with stops at 17 stations along four corridors originating in Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond, and Roanoke to points north including D.C., New York, Boston, and more. Amtrak Virginia set a record last fiscal year with 1.26 million passengers. Book now at Amtrak.com/virginia.
Monday Reception Sponsor:
Love Communications
Love Communications is an independent agency headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our mission is to help clients drive sales overnight and build stronger brands over time. We specialize in tourism, hospitality, retail, and cause marketing, and are experts at creating engaging, data driven campaigns that get results
Tuesday Breakfast Sponsor:
Zartico
Zartico powers the possibilities of place. Makers of the first Destination Operating System, Zartico harnesses and streamlines big data, science, AI, and technology to provide unprecedented visibility into the movement of people and economic opportunities. ZDOS™ is a complete strategic planning solution that equips communities to make better decisions and navigate the future. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Zartico has decades of experience in technology, tourism, data science, and storytelling.
Conference Sponsor:
Arrivalist
business description: Arrivalist is a top location intelligence platform for travel, using mobile data to offer insights on consumer behavior and market trends. Serving over 200 travel marketers, it's now part of AirDNA, a leading short-term rental data firm. Together, they provide comprehensive solutions for destination marketers, combining trip insights, traveler movements, and lodging trends.
Conference Sponsor:
Steller
Steller is the market leading travel discovery platform that seamlessly guides travelers from inspiration to planning and booking through the authentic experiences of their favorite creators. Steller's player distributes experiences in 1,200+ destinations to a worldwide travel audience through exclusive partnerships with leading search engines and travel booking sites.
Super Session Sponsor:
Adara
Adara helps tourism 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.
Super Session Sponsor:
Advance Travel & Tourism
Over the past 9 years the Advance Travel & Tourism team has grown to include over thirty travel marketing experts. During this time, we have developed partnerships with literally hundreds of clients; our work has included ad creative and design, ad messaging and other written content, social media, video, multi-channel media strategy and placement, and robust campaign performance reporting. Our team is proud to work exclusively within the tourism industry to help promote destinations, museums, attractions and other travel-related organizations.
Super Session Sponsor:

effectv
Effectv is an audience delivery company that combines the best of digital with the power of TV to help local, regional, and national advertisers generate results. We use first-party data to target audiences across linear TV, streaming, VOD -- reaching 60+ markets and 96 million U.S. adults (estimated Comcast and non-Comcast households).
Super Session Sponsor:
Epsilon
Epsilon is an advertising, measurement, and marketing technology company. We connect advertisers with visitors to drive performance and ROI. Epsilon helps clients harness the power of their first-party data to enhance, activate, and measure campaigns. Over decades, we’ve built the industry’s most comprehensive identity graph to give brands and agencies the ability to reach real visitors across all channels!
Registration Sponsor:
Henrico Sports Authority
The Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority was launched in 2022. We are your principal point of contact for our area’s sports tourism programs, which generate more than $60 million in economic impact annually. We also lead the way in event programming as well as the management of Henrico’s public and private investments. This growing portfolio of venues includes the Henrico Sports & Events Center (opening fall 2023) at Virginia Center Commons, in addition to the upcoming 17,000-seat GreenCity Arena. Other public and private facilities that the HSEA manages include the newly reimagined Belmont Golf Course, and the Frank J. Thornton YMCA Aquatic Center, an ultramodern structure and beacon of unity in eastern Henrico.
Media Sponsor:
Founded in 1902, Lamar Advertising is one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in North America. Lamar offers advertisers a variety of premium static and digital billboards, transit and airport advertising formats, helping local businesses and national brands reach audiences every day. Please visit www.lamar.com to learn more.
Student Conference Sponsor:
Sway
Sway is an independent advertising agency that adds accountability to imagination. Our strategic approach is guided by data, influenced by experience, and steeped in intuition that delivers results for our clients. With collaboration and curiosity, we marry inspired creative with informed placement to elevate brands and the people behind them.
Dessert 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.

Available in 43 markets and 22 languages, Tripadvisor provides more than 1 billion reviews of nearly 8 million accommodation, restaurant, experiences, airline and cruise businesses around the globe. Consumers turn to Tripadvisor to find their next adventure, compare low prices on hotels, flights and cruises, book popular tours and attractions, and reserve tables at great restaurants.
Super Session Sponsor:
VistaGraphics
With over 38 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.
Newcomers Welcome 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.
Monday PM Break Sponsor:
MediaOne
MediaOne, based in Atlanta, is a cutting edge and industry leading full-service digital marketing firm. The team members have been involved in digital marketing since its inception. This far-reaching breadth and depth of experience means you’ll benefit from it. MediaOne will deliver the measurable results and accountability that you need, expect and deserve for your digital marketing campaigns.
Tuesday Coffee Break Sponsor:

Our State
Across every travel sector, North Carolina is ranked 2nd when it comes to driving travel into Virginia (after Virginia itself). Reach your North Carolina neighbors with a custom advertising partnership with America's second largest privately published state magazine. Our stunning 90-year-old monthly publication is the perfect addition to your marketing tool chest, and we are proud to sponsor VA1 again this year.
Conference Key Card Sponsor:
Sojern
The Sojern Travel Marketing Platform helps destination marketers reach and inspire travelers throughout their planning journey across digital channels. With unmatched visibility into travel demand and market insights, Sojern builds audiences to find the right travelers for your destination and demonstrate economic impact. The platform is flexible to meet the needs of destinations and their stakeholders.
Tuesday Networking Break Sponsor:
MediaOne
True Omni helps companies engage with customers through an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy. True Omni provides Kiosk, Digital Signage & Mobile Marketing Solutions and integrates with existing channels through a Cloud-Based Platform. True Omni focuses on Customer Experience, Data Analytics, Productivity, and Revenue.
Conference Transcription Sponsor:
Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Buerau
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.
Beverage Sponsor:
LoyalBrew
Founded in Virginia, LoyalBrew is a digital passport app and network for tourists to discover and explore local businesses and destinations. We help DMOs promote and drive revenue to their food trails, craft beverage trails, and other local itineraries.
Supporting Sponsor:
STR
Founded in 1985, STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. STR was acquired in October 2019 as a division of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in the commercial and residential property markets.
Media Sponsor:
Virginia Business
Virginia Business is the only publication dedicated to covering economic activity in every sector and every region of the state. Since its creation, our magazine has won awards, attracted loyal readers and established a reputation as a “must read” for anybody who wants to stay abreast of business news in the commonwealth. In addition to our monthly print magazine featuring in-depth stories, Virginia Business posts breaking news and daily articles to VirginiaBusiness.com, sends a daily e-newsletter with the biggest business news around Virginia, a weekly real estate e-newsletter on Mondays and a roundup of the biggest stories of the week each Friday. Our annual publications include the Virginia 500, Maritime Guide, Hampton Roads Business, Site Selector, Virginia Meetings and in 2023 we introduced StartVirginia.
Event Sponsor:
Cvent
Cvent is a leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider. Our comprehensive suite of solutions automates and simplifies the entire event management process to maximize the impact of events.

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