See What the World is Reading About Us

What do our neighboring cities, states and the world know and really think about Virginia’s Blue Ridge? In recent years, Roanoke’s evolution has been described as “From Train City to Brain City.” Salem has been referred to as the “City of Champions.” But how do potential visitors and residents see us in media? 

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge (Visit VBR) would like for you to know. VBR recently received coverage in AAA Go Magazine, okra. Magazine, Southern Lady Magazine, Southern Cast Iron Magazine, and Condé Nast Traveler, as well as a mountain biking publication, BikeRumor. These major mentions are a result of Visit VBR working with travel and tourism industry businesses to host media tours.  Together, these efforts generated major media coverage that is inspiring near record traffic to VisitVBR.com and working to stimulate leisure travel for the fall 2020 and spring 2021 seasons.

From an 8-page fall destination spread in Southern Lady to the cover story of AAA Go Magazine’s “Mountains Issue,” people are thinking about Virginia’s Blue Ridge for their road trip getaways. The Visit VBR public relations (PR) team continues to actively target relevant out-of-town media by pitching positive travel story angles through various PR campaigns including regular virtual media tours and in-person media visits when appropriate.

The PR program has been an integral part of Visit VBR’s marketing efforts since 2010 and has gained impressive momentum as the region continues to grow with hotels, culinary offerings, museums and outdoor amenities. The PR program is essential for helping generate awareness of the VBR brand as a must-visit destination offering a full metro mountain combination of amenities to leisure, group, and sports visitors.

“What we do at Visit VBR every day is about generating jobs and tax collections necessary to support local schools and government services,” states Landon Howard, President of Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge. “We have a Reopening Campaign underway and the positive publicity we are receiving is one major part of the effort to build a quick recovery and success for the industry as we move into 2021,” added Howard.

Earned third-party articles over the past ten years have been used as an important economic development tool to recruit talent and business to the region and support the fact that VBR is a great place to live, work, and visit. 

Find more earned media results generated by Visit VBR here.