Providing a diversity of attractions and activities that make it the sixth-most-visited state, North Carolina sweeps down from the Great Smokies and Blue Ridge Mountains to 300 miles of coastline, with almost 500 golf courses and nearly 100 wineries in between.
Charlotte and Raleigh continue to expand with new large-scale facilities and amenities around their downtown convention centers. And new performing arts centers, museums and other attractions continue to roll out across the state.
The Heartland
"Charlotte’s Got a Lot," the theme of the 2-year-old marketing campaign of the Tar Heel State’s largest city, "resonates well," according to Mike Butts, executive director of Visit Charlotte.
"It embraces everything, from smart city planning to the Southern hospitality visitors experience. Planners are able to get a great deal with an enhanced package, giving their attendees exciting and engaging things to do," he says.
According to Butts, new openings have produced a tremendous amount of momentum. Much of it is occurring close to downtown’s 850,000-square-foot Charlotte Convention Center, which has more than 4,000 guest rooms within walking distance.
For starters there’s the new $195 million NASCAR Hall of Fame, unveiled in May adjacent to the center, which includes a 40,000-square-foot ballroom built as part of a convention center expansion.
Butts singles out the three new museums at the Levine Center for the Arts and new hotels such as The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte, which was unveiled last year, and the Hotel Sierra, opening next spring.
"When you add increased air accessibility and new mixed-use entertainment destinations like The EpiCentre or NC Music Factory, Charlotte is undeniably a great value," he says.
Two of the destination’s biggest attractions are located in nearby Cabarrus County: Charlotte Motor Speedway and Concord Mills mall.
The Triangle encompasses Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham, which boasts Research Triangle Park (RTP), home to 170 companies.
The second-largest city and capital, Raleigh has seen a five-year, $3 billion metro renaissance.
Downtown’s catalyst is the 2-year-old, 500,000-square-foot Raleigh Convention Center and Marriott headquarters hotel, joined in May by the unveiling of the new 5,500-seat Raleigh Amphitheater.
Also flanking the center is the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts and a Sheraton hotel, and about 1,000 rooms are within a five-block radius. Nearby, the $20 million City Plaza debuted last October with space for 5,000 for functions, completing a multiyear Fayetteville Street rejuvenation.
"We’ve proven the need for a convention center. There was pent-up demand. Business has exceeded expectations," says Loren Gold, executive vice president of the Greater Raleigh CVB.
Meanwhile, the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh reopened in April after a $73 million expansion.
Durham has a walkable downtown with Duke University adjacent to it. Four miles away, a second cluster of hotels is located at RTP.
Downtown’s Durham Convention Center, connected to a Marriott, is part of a civic center complex that also includes three arts theaters. Also within walking distance is the 2,800-seat Durham Performing Arts Center.
"Downtown is vibrant, with nearly 4 million square feet of old historic textile and tobacco factories remade into loft apartments, restaurants and art galleries, and space for meetings and events," says Sam Poley, marketing director of the Durham CVB.
The quintessential college town, Chapel Hill is home to the University of North Carolina and such meetings-ready properties as the Siena Hotel, Carolina Inn and Sheraton Chapel Hill, in addition to the new Aloft Chapel Hill.
"Groups quickly discover our small-town flavor with a big-city taste," says Linda Ekeland, sales director at the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau. "We offer a variety of meeting space for up to 400 attendees. Unique are several restaurants and retail stores providing cooking classes for groups of less than 50."
Attractions include the Morehead Planetarium & Science Center and the North Carolina Botanical Garden, which opened a new 29,700-square-foot education center with meeting space last year.
South of the Triangle, Fayetteville borders Fort Bragg. To the west is the golfing mecca of Pinehurst.
"Planners cite our central location and value," says John Meroski, CEO of the Fayetteville Area CVB. "Groups we see most often are military reunions and military affiliated groups, religious conferences, state events and fraternal organizations."
The city’s Crown Center provides a 12,000-seat coliseum, a 5,000-seat arena, a 2,500-seat theater and a 60,000-square-foot expo center. Major meetings hotels include the Holiday Inn Bordeaux and Doubletree Hotel Fayetteville.
The Airborne & Special Operations Museum is the top off-site venue.
Another major attraction, the Cape Fear Botanical Garden, will open a 33,000-square-foot welcome center in April, which will accommodate functions for 1,000.
Farther west, High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem form the Piedmont Triad.
Greensboro boasts the 1,017-room Sheraton Greensboro/Koury Convention Center and the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, where the Atlantic Coast Conference Hall of Fame will open next March.
The event-friendly International Civil Rights Center & Museum opened Feb. 1 in Greensboro’s 1929 F.W. Woolworth building, where four university students held a famous sit-in Feb. 1, 1960, which led to other sit-ins across the country.
High Point is the "Home Furnishings Capital of the World," boasting 50-plus retail furniture outlets and the International Home Furnishings Market, held twice a year.
Winston-Salem, where the country’s first arts council was formed in 1949, has long been known as the "City of the Arts." Museums include the Reynolds House-Museum of American Art and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art.
A grand opening was held Sept. 10 for downtown’s new 83,000-square-foot Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts, which can handle groups of up to 2,000.
"The center’s opening continues to validate us as a city of arts and innovation and provides another great opportunity for convention attendees," says Richard Geiger, president of Visit Winston-Salem.
The city’s main meetings venue, downtown’s M.C. Benton Jr. Convention Center, together with the connected Marriott and Embassy Suites hotels, serves up 461 rooms and 170,000 square feet of function space.
Atlantic Coast
North Carolina’s shoreline is anchored in the south by the Cape Fear Coast and Wilmington, where the new 107,000-square-foot Wilmington Convention Center will have a soft opening in November.
"We will be able to host groups up to four times the size of the largest groups we’ve hosted," says John Sneed, convention sales manager for the Wilmington/Cape Fear Coast CVB. "For the most part, groups have used just one property, which limited the size to 400 or 500."
According to Sneed, the center will have 350 rooms within walking distance, and trolley systems have been set up for groups that want beach rooms 15 to 20 minutes away.
Meetings hotels include the Hilton Wilmington Riverside, Carolina Beach’s Courtyard by Marriott and Wrightsville Beach’s Blockade Runner Beach Resort and Holiday Inn SunSpree.
Battleship North Carolina is a popular off-site option.
is a popular off-site option.
Morehead City, 100 miles up the coast, can take groups of up to 1,000 at the Crystal Coast Civic Center, and Sheraton Atlantic Beach is the largest meetings hotel.
"We have many great restaurants, attractions and beaches," says Cathy Adair, group sales director at the Crystal Coast Tourism Authority. "One of our popular meeting spaces is the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores."
Farther inland is the colonial capital of New Bern, which celebrates its 300th anniversary this year. Its big attraction is the waterfront Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens. The grand opening of the $60 million, event-ready North Carolina History Center will take place Oct. 21 on an adjacent Trent River site between the palace and historic downtown.
Another 45 miles inland is Greenville, home to East Carolina University and the Greenville-Pitt County Convention Center.
The 32-acre convention center campus includes three hotels totaling 433 rooms: the connected Hilton Greenville, a Hampton Inn and the City Hotel & Bistro, which recently remodeled its ballroom.
Farther north along the coast is the Outer Banks, a tourist mecca of barrier islands designated a national scenic byway last October. Half of the 137-mile byway, which runs south from Nags Head, is made up of two national seashores and two national wildlife refuges.
Meetings hotels in the area include the Hilton Garden Inn Outer Banks/Kitty Hawk; the Ramada Plaza, Clarion Oceanfront and Comfort Inn South, all in Nags Head; and Sanderling Resort and Spa at Duck to the north.
The Mountains
Groups see higher attendance when they meet in Asheville, according to Tim Lampkin, convention sales director for the Asheville CVB.
"They can think better here in the mountains," he says, referring to the CVB’s meetings website, www.thinkbetterhere.com.
A revitalized downtown, full of restaurants and galleries and known for its Art Deco buildings, features the 83,000-square-foot Ashville Civic Center.
With a plethora of outdoor recreational activities, Ashville is the gateway to the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.
The popular Biltmore Estate is home to a 213-room inn and a range of unique meeting venues. Earlier this year, the Biltmore unveiled Antler Hill Village, a 15-acre entrance to its winery that features retail shops, an exposition hall and expanded tasting areas. Close to the Biltmore gates is the 104-room Grand Bohemian Hotel, which opened last year with 5,700 square feet of event space.
New properties include the Hilton Asheville Biltmore Park and a Hotel Indigo.
East of Ashville in the foothills is Hickory, known for furniture manufacturing and outlets. The Hickory Metro Convention Center provides over 76,000 square feet of meeting space.
Tony Bartlett has been writing about the travel trade industry for more than 20 years.
