2025 Teams         

Visited AAA and tour operators in central and northern Pennsylvania

Jim Coggin, Virginia Beach CVB

Toni Bastian, Richmond Region Tourism

Dana Howe, Visit Norfolk 

Visited AAA and tour operators

in western North Carolina

and Tennessee

Andrew Marks,

Lynchburg Econ. Dev. & Tourism

Hannah Oliver, Visit Loudoun

Aliki Leonard, Visit SoSi

Visited AAA and tour operators in Massachusetts, Rhode Island & Connecticut 

James McCann, Visit Portsmouth

Morgan Lynch, Visit Stafford

Visited AAA and tour operators in Maryland, Western Pennsylvania,

Eastern Ohio & West Virginia

Bruce Newton, Hampton CVB

Dia Foden, Newport News Tourism

Special thanks to Joni Johnson and Virginia Tourism Corp. for providing the Virginia Is for Lovers bags and being a long-time sponsor!

2025 Sales Mission

The 2025 VADMO/VTC Sales Blitz calls were made during the month of May. This year we had 30 participating DMO’s including Virginia Tourism as a sponsor, four teams representing 11 DMO’s, and 100 sales calls made to AAA offices and to tour operators across nine states. These teams met with more than 100 agents and visited 78 different localities. There is also a growing interest from agents and tour operators for new ideas and itineraries, and several new trends were identified. For the first time ever, we reached out to the Northeast area to include Boston, MA.,

At each location there was a presentation and the Virginia binder with profile sheets from participating DMO partners was reviewed and a Virginia Is for Lovers bag stuffed with gift items was left to share.

Similar to years past, one recurring trend that we heard was "we wish other states did this" and "this is an amazing resource."

The mission focused on Virginia’s drive market and those within the VTC’s consumer campaign, including Boston, Ma., where several airports have direct, nonstop flights to Virginia and is only an 8– 10-hour drive away (depending what part of the state they are traveling).

AAA offices in PA still rely on your printed materials more now than before since the TourBook is no longer printed and only available for online viewing. They still see members wanting to leave with something in their hands. Offices in NC & TN seem to have less need for printed materials, as most are online. It could be beneficial to send out digital copies or have a digital brochure landing page to send to agents. The Virginia Travel Guide was already on display in several branch locations and will be sent to others. Most offices seem to have limited storag space.

Tour Operators are still rebounding and being more creative in their selected itineraries and locations. Several expressed interest in new itineraries or suggestions. It is recommended to submit a few to each tour operator that expressed interest. A few challenges that are still lingering for group travel are pricing, interest in packages, and driver shortage. A growing trend is that many operators are now using receptive tour operators to handle these arrangements because they just don’t have the staff or time.

We are planning another Sales Blitz in 2026, so stay tuned for more information soon! If you have questions or need more information, reach out to James McCann at mccannj@portsmouthva.gov