Behind the Love

Rita McClenny is president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC), the agency tasked with expanding domestic and international inbound travel and motion picture production in Virginia. A native Virginian from Southampton County, she spent several years running the Virginia Film Office, a division of VTC, before taking over the agency in 2012. VEDP President and CEO Stephen Moret spoke with McClenny about Virginia’s top tourist destinations, marketing tourism during a global pandemic, and what it’s like overseeing one of the most enduring brands in tourism marketing, “Virginia is for Lovers.”

Stephen Moret: A lot of people don’t know that VEDP and VTC share office space. We even share a number of functions, and it’s really brought us close together as partners. So, Rita, could we start off with an overview of the roles, responsibilities, and mission of VTC?

Rita McClenny: The VTC mission is to expand domestic and international inbound travel and motion picture production to generate revenue and work opportunities in Virginia. Our vision is to foster a spirit of partnership within Virginia’s tourism and motion picture industry. We look at how tourism changes communities across Virginia.

Moret: It’s a special mission, and one that I know that you enjoy, because I see you walk to work every day with a smile. One of the things VTC is charged with doing is overseeing one of the most iconic brands in travel in the United States, “Virginia is for Lovers.” Could you share how that phrase came about and how it’s evolved in Virginia?

McClenny: It was 1969, and it was actually the agency we currently have under contract, The Martin Agency. They were looking for something different and groundbreaking, and “Virginia is for Lovers” came to life. A state tourism brand with a whimsical slogan really did roll out with excitement and shock. It opens the imagination. When you think about “Virginia is for Lovers,” what does that mean? We get the question still today. Fifty-one years later, it’s still, “What does ‘Virginia is for Lovers’ mean?”

We say anything that you love in a vacation, you can find it in Virginia. Whatever experience you like to enjoy while you’re on vacation with loved ones, you can find it in Virginia. So, whether it’s outdoors, whether it’s the coast or the cliff, whether it’s music, sports, film — anything you can imagine doing on a vacation, we have it right here in Virginia. That has been a big part of keeping the brand relevant and always having different avenues and roads we can follow and explore and bring to the consumer.

Moret: One of the things that I think really speaks to how beloved and well-known that brand is is how often it’s utilized in other forms. People make bumper stickers that say, “Virginia is for Computer Science Lovers,” or “Virginia is for Data Lovers,” or all kinds of other things. Traveling the country and the world promoting tourism and travel to Virginia, what are the perceptions of the Commonwealth of Virginia you most often encounter?

McClenny: That we welcome everyone and anyone. That we are located in the Mid-Atlantic and we are very accessible by air, sea, and car. That Virginia has the Atlantic Ocean bordered on the East and the Blue Ridge Mountains bordered on the West. It’s a place with all the assets and all the beauty that one would want.

 

The fact that we’re the birthplace of country music, the founding colonies. The fact that Virginia Indians have been on this soil for more than 12,000 years. There’s just so much history. If people know us for one thing, they know Virginia for history.

Moret: What are people most surprised about when traveling or relocating to Virginia?

McClenny: That we have 300 miles of beaches and we have eight different varieties of oysters. That always gets people. When we give them the whole rundown about all the different merroirs of taste and that we have eight, they go, “What? I didn’t know that.”

Moret: When you think about folks visiting, they come for different reasons and visit different places. What are some of the most common destinations, and what are some that are up-and-coming?

McClenny: It’s really outdoor recreation. People know the Blue Ridge Parkway, they know the Shenandoah Valley, but Canadians come by the hundreds of thousands to bike on our trails. We are a goal destination for mountain biking, and investments are being made in those mountain biking trails and our trail systems. We work very closely with the Department of Conservation and Recreation, as well as the Department of Wildlife Resources, at blending agritourism, farms, outdoor wildlife, and trail systems.

Moret: Tourism has faced some real challenges this year with the pandemic — not just here in Virginia, but around the world. In terms of getting people to travel during a pandemic, what are the most important amenities tourist-oriented businesses need to build or rebuild to gain customer trust? How do you see things coming back in Virginia and beyond in the hospitality sector?

McClenny: The road to recovery from the pandemic is filled with surprises and opportunities for creativity. We’re looking at consumer sentiment and how we’re responding to the data of what the consumer is thinking, the kinds of products the consumer wants to really get into, and what will give them the confidence to venture back out. Number one is a safe environment in which to travel.

Touchless technology is a growing sector and will continue to be a growing sector. We’re looking and working with companies that produce products which provide clean and safe environments, and we see those partnerships evolving with airlines and various brands. In our messaging, we’re talking about when you’re ready, we’ll be here, or saying to people that when the time is right, come see us. The campaign we’re running right now is “Wanderlove.” We know you’re thinking about traveling. Go ahead and pick those places, go online for a virtual tour. That, eventually, will result in an actual visit. We’ve had to go back to the dream state of imagining travel and then inspiring travel.

Moret: What a lot of folks don’t understand is how big an economic driver tourism is in the United States, and in Virginia in particular. What’s the overall impact tourism has in the Commonwealth?

McClenny: The Virginia travel industry is the sixth-largest employer among all nonfarm industry sectors, which is 7.1% of total private employment. In 2019, domestic travel spend supported 337,000 jobs, and that was a $27 billion visitor spend around the Commonwealth. Investing in tourism promotion stimulates visitor demand, and that’s what our responsibility is at Virginia Tourism. 

We’re the chief marketing officer for the Commonwealth. The revenue generated from the industry benefits local residents. It benefits communities across Virginia. Tourism spending supported $1.8 billion in Virginia state and local tax revenue and $6.4 billion in payroll in 2019.

Moret: It’s been clear how important that sector is, and we’re excited that we’re starting to see some recovery there. Before you took over VTC, you actually ran the Virginia Film Office for a number of years. I used to head up the Louisiana Film Office. Talk a bit about the role of media and film production as a sector in Virginia, and also in promoting Virginia as a place to visit.

McClenny: Media is another open door to a view on Virginia, whether it’s history, it’s contemporary, or it’s a reimagination of some stories. We have media, film, television — not only produced by Virginians, but we also attract productions from around the world. Of course, Los Angeles and New York are two of the prime markets where we go and recruit filmmaking to Virginia. In fact, as of October, we’re going to own Sunday night. “The Good Lord Bird” is Ethan Hawke playing John Brown, and it was filmed 100% in Virginia. Then we have “The Walking Dead: World Beyond,” the third in the series of “The Walking Dead.” It’s filmed in Virginia, and they’ll be back for a second season.

We have a lot coming out currently in the marketplace. Portions of “Wonder Woman 1984” were filmed in Northern Virginia. So we’re very excited about the new products we have coming out, and we’re also excited that companies are figuring out how to operate in this COVID-19 environment. We have two shows going into production. One is “Dopesick,” which is a book by Beth Macy, who’s a Virginian. It explores the opioid crisis. The other is “Swagger,” an Apple and CBS co-production.

Moret: I know you spent most of your life in Virginia, but you did leave the Commonwealth to attend college in New York State and in Tennessee. In retrospect, how did those experiences influence how you think about your work in Virginia’s tourism industry?

McClenny: I’ve always traveled. We traveled as a family. My dad did help a lot with agriculture with the mission in Africa, in a town called Monrovia in Liberia. My mom traveled and helped with preservation and how to grow gardens. We would go along on their trips to Africa, and we would travel to Europe and South America. That’s kind of in my DNA.

I think part of growing up and seeing the world, being curious and finding a lot of excitement in that, informed me as a human being to be considerate and empathetic and loving, and just to value people and things.

Moret: One of the things I’ve enjoyed about getting to know you and your team at VTC is the sense of joy and enthusiasm that exudes from all of you about Virginia and about visiting and traveling across Virginia. It’s really infectious. I always feel great about the job you guys are doing, promoting the Commonwealth. What are your personal favorite places to visit in the Commonwealth?

McClenny: That’s an impossible question, Stephen. There are so many. I will say this — I love our four seasons, if it’s snow, or going to the beach, or going to the mountains, or fishing. I will say that my favorite place in Virginia is whatever I can see from the back of a horse. That’s my favorite.

Moret: We’ve covered a lot of ground here. Is there anything else you’d like to say?

McClenny: As we recover from this pandemic and look at where we are as a world, and the things we treasure as human beings, it’s the human connection. You can enjoy it from home. You can enjoy it from a small perch. But when we explore, and when we see others, and we experience other places and other people, it makes us better human beings. It makes us more interesting people. It gives us stories to tell. It adds to our personal story or family story, because many of the memories we find ourselves reflecting upon are stories that happen when you’re on vacation with your family that you can laugh about and go back to the pictures or video. If you’re on vacation with someone, you’re going to snap a photo or two, or you’re going to get on social media and share it.

Looking at all we do to make the state inviting for business, for pleasure, and for growth, making it a better part of the universe, all of that comes with what we do every day, what you do at VEDP and what we do here at VTC. We’re blessed to be able to share it and to work in this environment.

Moret: I certainly feel that same sense of blessing. It’s been a wonderful journey for me so far in Virginia, and a highlight of that has been working with you and your team. Rita, we’re so grateful for the great work that you and your team at VTC do. We’re looking forward to all future collaborations we’re working on, from the outdoor sector of the economy to quality of life, recruiting people to Virginia for remote work opportunities. I’m really excited about that collaborative spirit and the work our respective organizations do to help create a more vibrant Virginia economy. So, thank you for all you do, and thank you for being with us today.

McClenny: That’s why Virginia is for lovers. Thank you, Stephen.