Yesterday, Visit SoSi, the official Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) for Danville and
Pittsylvania County, VA, celebrated a major milestone and their first full year of successful operations when they released the first-ever Visit SoSi Annual Report in front of approximately 100 regional industry stakeholders who gathered at Golden Leaf Bistro in the River District, Danville’s downtown.
The Visit SoSi Annual Report release comes 12 months after the City of Danville published their
first-ever Tourism Master Plan and launched the new Visit SoSi regional tourism name and brand
identity system.
The report showcases tremendous market momentum, highlighting $900M worth of new area tourism and destination development investment secured over the last five years, including the opening of the Danville Casino and the new Holbrook hotel, the launch and expansion of several smaller local businesses, as well as multiple large-scale efforts currently under construction, including Caesars Virginia Resort, Dan River Falls, Riverfront Park, and more.
Additionally, the new annual report highlights several notable industry awards and recognitions that have helped shine a spotlight on the region, including a national Main Street America award for Danville’s River District, state-wide industry recognition for Lisa Meriwether, Visit SoSi Tourism
Manager, and a statewide “Destination of the Year” award for VIRginia International Raceway.
“Since the Visit SoSi brand was launched in May of 2023, the Danville Office of Economic Development & Tourism has been hard at work building a regional destination marketing and management organization that is applying industry best practices in our community to support
local businesses, attract visitation, and help lower local tax burdens as the destination grows. It
all works together to help to strengthen our local economy,” Danville Office of Economic Development and Tourism Director, Corrie Bobe said. “I’m delighted by everything that Lisa [Meriwether] and the Visit SoSi team have accomplished already and am already looking forward to seeing the next phase of our Tourism Master Planning efforts come to life in the months ahead. All of this intentionality, effort, investment, and industry collaboration is clearly improving our economy, raising our local quality of life, and really helping our community thrive.”
“Over the last twelve months, the Visit SoSi program has launched a number of new workforce development programs, begun advertising the region in print, digital and broadcast channels, revamped the local Visitor Center operations to align to the statewide visitor services strategy, and developed a number of new maps, guides, brochures, and advertising media to showcase this growing destination and all it has to offer,” Tourism Manager, Lisa Meriwether added. “It has been phenomenal to watch this program come alive over the last 12 months, an honor to be a part of it, and a beautiful thing to see so many partners in this community rise-up to meet a truly incredible moment.”
View the Annual Report here: htps://www.visitsosi.com/partner/tourism-annual-report/