Groups that choose Virginia as a gathering spot have access to 400 years of American history, a plethora of modern business facilities and bucolic scenery that stretches from the beaches of the Atlantic across the piedmont to the Shenandoah Mountains.
Settings range from new convention centers in the Hampton Roads region to luxury mountain resorts in the west and the fully equipped hotels and conference centers in the pulsating business meccas of
northern and central Virginia.
Northern Virginia
This urban corridor with green and serene corners offers groups proximity to the nation’s capital, business acumen and history stops like President George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, with its all-new visitor and education centers, Arlington National Cemetery and Manassas National Battlefield Park.
Northern Virginia is home to many national and international trade associations, as well as technology companies.
Business hubs include Tysons Corner, the Dulles Corridor near Washington Dulles International Airport, and centers along the Potomac River in Arlington and Alexandria. Some Arlington hotels are actually closer to the White House than some hotels in Washington, D.C., and several subway stops offer easy access to the capital.
Northern Virginia’s largest meeting sites include Dulles Expo and Conference Center; Westfield’s Marriott Washington Dulles, with 40,000 square feet of function space; and Lansdowne Resort, a golf resort and conference center with 45,000 square feet of function space near Washing ton Dulles International Airport.
Arlington’s Crystal Gateway area, located near Reagan Washington National Airport, has a portfolio of full-service hotels by Marriott, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hilton, Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton, and Sheraton, all with significant meeting facilities.
Alexandria will also soon debut two new properties with meeting facilities: a Westin and a Hotel Monaco.
For a certified “green” retreat next to the legendary Hunt Country, there’s the 3,000-acre, IACC-approved Airlie Center near Warrenton.
And in 2009, Salamander Inn and Spa will open as a new upscale meetings option in Middleburg.
According to Arnie Quirion, president and CEO of Visit Fairfax, Fairfax County’s position in the middle of the Northern Virginia region offers business groups a great location.
“With one of the best shopping opportunities on the East Coast, a full product line of hotels, from The Ritz Carlton to long-term-stay hotels, and its location immediately adjacent to the nation’s capital, Fairfax County puts meeting attendees in the middle of one of the most culturally, historically and attraction-rich locations on the globe,” Quirion says. “As our branding identification suggests, ‘FX Marks the Spot.’”
South of Fairfax, halfway between Washington, D.C., and Richmond near Interstate 95, historic Fredericksburg has also become a part of the region’s meetings map. The destination’s new Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center features 80,000 square feet of function space.
Central Virginia
Central Virginia has been home to famous Americans like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and sports great Arthur Ashe.
With a strategic location between the mountains and the sea, it is defined by rolling natural beauty and historic sites such as Civil War battlefields and presidential homes.
As Virginia’s capital with a formidable past, Richmond anchors the area. Its James River waterfront and charming Victorian neighborhoods feature historic architecture that is now home to trendy restaurants, clubs and boutiques.
The Greater Richmond Convention Center is one of the state’s most important meeting facilities, with 189,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting space, and the 400-room Marriott Richmond Hotel is adjacent to the facility.
Downtown Richmond’s venerable Jefferson Hotel boasts historic architecture and traditional hospitality, plus 26,000 square feet of meeting space.
In total, the Richmond area has 16,000 hotel rooms that are priced for every budget.
Just outside Richmond, Virginia Crossings Resort is a top retreat in the region.
West of Richmond are Blue Ridge Mountain vistas and the serene topography President Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries loved. Jefferson’s Monticello estate is located near Charlottesville, as is his legacy for higher learning—the University of Virginia. Jefferson, also an architect, designed the university, as well as Monticello and the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond.
Nearby Wintergreen Resort is a major four-season mountain getaway, with many recreational options and 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor conference facilities.
Also close to Charlottesville are luxury small meeting spaces and amenities at Keswick Hall and Boar’s Head Inn.
Smith Mountain Lake is a popular recreation area west of Lynchburg, and Mariner’s Landing Resort and Conference Center has 7,500 square feet of lakeside meeting space with high-tech amenities and banquet facilities. The property is constructing the Executive Meeting Center, which will offer 20,000 additional square feet of exhibition and event space for up to 400 people.
The new James River Conference Center in Lynchburg has 15,000 square feet of function space, including two ballrooms, one boardroom, three executive suites, and five breakout rooms, as well as views of the city and surrounding scenery. Wireless Internet service and videoconferencing are also among the center’s business amenities.
“Lynchburg offers a unique location for meetings because we have a combination of history, culture and natural beauty at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains,” says Becca Lingley, group sales manager for the Lynchburg Regional CVB. “Our package is one of big city amenities and down-home Southern hospitality you don’t usually find in a larger city.”
State associations and reunion groups find Lynchburg’s average hotel room rate of about $70 an affordable alternative, according to Lingley.
Hampton Roads
Virginia’s Hampton Roads region is where beaches, salty air and America’s earliest history combine with top-shelf meeting facilities. It’s a superlative choice for seaside recreation, museums, history, and contemporary business amenities. America’s founding story began here in Jamestown and continued in Williamsburg and Yorktown.
An array of hotels and meeting facilities are available in the communities of Virginia Beach, Hampton, Norfolk, Williamsburg, Newport News, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Suffolk.
Two of the region’s major group venues recently debuted: the nautically themed, 516,000-square-foot Virginia Beach Convention Center and the Hampton Roads Convention Center, with 350,000 square feet of function space.
Later this year, Virginia Beach will also unveil the 1,200-seat Sandler Center for the Performing Arts and a 234-room Westin with 10,000 square feet of meeting space, augmenting the destination’s current lineup of group-friendly hotels, which includes The Founders Inn and Spa, the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront, the Sheraton Oceanfront, and the Cavalier Hotel.
Al Hutchinson, director of convention sales for the Virginia Beach CVB, says his bureau is expanding its reach due to all of the new offerings in the beachside city.
“We are now marketing for international and national meetings, as well as statewides and local groups,” he says. “Not only is the convention center fully operational, but we also are opening several other new facilities by this fall.”
Meanwhile, the city of Hampton continues to enhance its facilities portfolio, including the convention center site. Another full-service hotel and a 2,000-seat theater will soon join the site, home to the convention center, the Embassy Suites Hampton Roads Hotel and Spa and the Hampton Coliseum arena.
In Norfolk, the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center is boosting the city’s meetings appeal, along with a new 240-room Hilton hotel that will debut in 2008 with 23,000 square feet of meeting space.
In Newport News, the $30 million USS Monitor Civil War-era exhibit in the Mariners Museum is an important new attraction in the destination, and the city has several new hotels, including the Newport News Marriott at City Center Hotel and Conference Center, with 256 guest rooms and meeting facilities for up to 1,000 people.
Groups that book Williamsburg are well situated to experience Virginia’s Historic Triangle, which also encompasses Jamestown and Yorktown, and Jamestown’s 400th anniversary celebrations will be in full swing throughout 2007.
Colonial Williamsburg Hotels has enlarged its meetings portfolio with a total rebuild of Williamsburg Lodge, which is now 60 percent larger and features 45,000 square feet of function space.
The Great Wolf Lodge Williamsburg is another new option in town, joining other meetings-ready properties such as the Kingsmill Resort and Spa, featuring an IACC-certified conference center, and the Williamsburg Marriott.
The big news in Chesapeake is the opening this fall of the Towne Place at Greenbrier, a 170,000-square-foot retail, dining and entertainment complex that will also feature a property carrying Hyatt Hotels’ new Hyatt Place brand. The complex will be located less than five minutes by car from the Chesapeake Conference Center.
Western Virginia
The pastoral mountain scenery and fertile valley land on Virginia’s western side attracted early pioneers from Europe. Today, business groups convening in the area enjoy the same landscapes and heritage left by the early settlers.
The region is a mix of unspoiled nature and contemporary sophistication. Rivers, mountains and other natural attractions such as Natural Bridge, Luray Caverns, Mountain Lake, and the Cascades’ 66-foot waterfall draw visitors into the outdoors.
History comes alive at stops like the 18th century Smithfield Plantation in Blacksburg and the Booker T. Washington National Monument in Franklin County.
In addition to exploring historic sights and enjoying outdoor pursuits like hiking and biking, during leisure time, attendees like to roam local markets, shop for antiques, stop in on some annual festivals, and sample the local performing arts culture.
Roanoke is the financial and cultural hub of the Shenandoah Valley, and the region is dotted with a number of other welcoming communities, in addition to a growing portfolio of meetings-friendly hotels and group facilities.
Among the valley’s principal group facilities with 21st century amenities set amid the peaks, waterfalls and sloping scenery are the Roanoke Civic Center, which recently finished an expansion that doubled the facility’s total square footage of meeting and exhibit space to 80,000; the Salem Civic Center; and the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
In Staunton, Stonewall Jackson Hotel and Conference Center is another excellent meetings choice. The historic property, originally built in 1924, recently reopened following a multimillion-dollar renovation and restoration.
Staunton is a small town with big interests, including the world-renowned Blackfriars Playhouse— home to the American Shakespeare Center—and President Woodrow Wilson’s birthplace home and library.
The Homestead in Bath County has been a gracious oasis for more than two centuries, and its contemporary features include 72,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, plus high-tech amenities for every business need. Complementing the meeting spaces is an array of recreational options, including golf, tennis, horseback riding, fly-fishing, and skiing. A ropes course for team-building exercises adds to the group-friendly options, as does a spa.
Farther south, Blacksburg is home to Virginia Tech and The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. The property, one of the region’s most recent debuts, features 23,700 square feet of meeting space, high-tech amenities and a full-service business center.
At the intersection of interstates 77 and 81, the Wytheville Meeting Center recently opened at Wytheville Community College, where teleconferencing and adjacent recreational facilities provide team-building opportunities for groups.
Meanwhile, new Wytheville hotel rooms are available at the Comfort Suites, and more rooms are coming on-line in late 2007 and early 2008 at new properties including a Fairfield Inn, a Holiday Inn and a Country Inn and Suites.
In Abingdon, the Southwest Virginia Higher Education and Conference Center has 89,000 square feet of meeting space, and the town is also home to the historic and gracious Martha Washington Inn. This is the place to stage events complemented by traditional Southern hospitality. The inn features a 3,200-square-foot ballroom for up to 300 guests. After business, attendees can enjoy treatments at the inn’s new spa or the entertainment at the historic Barter Theatre.
Breaks Interstate Park is one of the area’s natural preserves where meeting space is surrounded by spectacular scenery. The park has the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi River and a population of eagles. Both are visible from the glass walls of The Rhododendron Lodge Conference Center, which can host up to 500 attendees.
For More Info
Abingdon CVB 276.676.2282
www.abingdon.com
Bristol CVB 423.989.4859
www.bristolchamber.org
Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association 703.838.4200
www.funside.com
Arlington Convention and Visitors Service 703.228.0873
www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com
Charlottesville/Albemarle CVB 434.977.6100
www.soveryvirginia.com
Chesapeake Conventions and Tourism 757.502.4898
www.visitchesapeake.com
Fairfax County CVC 703.752.9509
www.fxva.com
Fredericksburg Department of Tourism 800.260.3646
www.meetatfred.com
Greater Williamsburg
Chamber and Tourism Alliance 757.229.6511
www.visitwilliamsburg.com
Hampton CVB 800.260.3646
www.meetatfred.com
Harrisonburg/Rockingham CVB 540.432.8935
www.hrcvb.org
Lexington/Rockbridge Area Visitor Center 540.463.3777
www.lexingtonvirginia.com
Lynchburg Regional CVB 434.845.5966
www.discoverlynchburg.org
Newport News Tourism Development Office 757.926.1400
www.newport-news.org
Norfolk CVB 757.664.6620
www.norfolkcvb.com
Portsmouth CVB 757.393.5327
www.portsmouthva.gov/tourism
Prince William County/Manassas CVB 703.396.7130
www.visitpwc.com
Richmond Metropolitan CVB 804.782.2777
www.richmondva.com
Roanoke Valley CVB 757.923.3880
www.visitroanokeva.com
Suffolk Division of Tourism 800.260.3646
www.suffolk-fun.com
Virginia Beach CVB 757.385.6663
www.vbfun.com
Virginia Tourism Corporation 202.872.0557
www.virginia.org
Wytheville CVB 276.223.3355
www.visitwytheville.com
