Raleigh to Debut New Visitors' Center

Wake — Tourism is big business in the Triangle. According to the Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, 11 million people visited Wake County last year, spending $1.3 billion. Soon, visitors will have a new place to turn for information.

The Visitors and Convention Bureau plans to open a new visitors’ center inside the Raleigh City Museum on Fayetteville Street. It will be right across the street from “The Mint,” one of Raleigh’s newest restaurants.

“Anything that brings more attention to the downtown area is obviously good to all of downtown Raleigh,” said Douglas Snyder, general manager of The Mint.

Right now, visitors have few places to turn. But that will soon change.

“We are going to have at any given time, over 2,000 visitors in the downtown area wanting information on various things,” said Dennis Edwards with the convention and visitors bureau. “We wanted to make it as easy as possible for visitors and residents alike to get that information.”

Officials with the Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau say they hope to have the visitor's center open by March, before the big NCAA men's tournament.

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Shouldn't the visitor's center be a good starting point for visitors? I can understand the proximity to the new convention center as a plus for some travelers, but Fayetteville Street is only a recognizable location - not a location that's easy to navigate to, park near, or visit from elsewhere. My guess would be that 95% of the traffic past the new visitor's center is from Raleigh residents and city/county/state workers.

Mac1
January 4, 2008 3:59 p.m.

Welcome to Raleigh! Enjoy you stay DOWNTOWN!

threatened to shoot the woman when she didn't immediately hand over her money. He then tried to drag her from her wheelchair.

The victim said it happened after she left a store in downtown Raleigh

Fun
January 4, 2008 11:55 a.m.

I bet they have Spanish literature telling people where to get government assistance.

PaulRevere
January 4, 2008 11:20 a.m.

The first thing to put in the visitor center is a map telling visitors where to park in Raleigh. Parking is VERY limited. So much so that we don't 'visit' because there's usually no parking available.

Jimm57
January 4, 2008 9:55 a.m.

From what I remember, people had a hard time finding the old visitor's center. This one should be more obvious since it's on Fayetteville Street.

rogerkneebend
January 4, 2008 9:05 a.m.