As he approaches his 18th anniversary as CEO of Visit Fairfax, Barry Biggar has the same item atop his to-do list as when he started on the job: a conference center.
“We needed it 25 years ago, we need it today,” Biggar said during a Jan. 28 presentation to the Fairfax County Planning Commission.
The president and CEO of Visit Fairfax believes an expected increase of $6.5 million a year in funding for promoting local tourism can be leveraged to create more than $1 billion annually in new economic activity countywide.
The tourism sector’s impact on the county economy “will get to $5 billion a year,” potentially within the next “three to five years,” Barry Biggar predicted at the Board of Supervisors’ Economic Initiatives Committee yesterday (Tuesday).
A number of museums in Fairfax County are included in a new Virginia tourism campaign to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary next year.
Launched last week, the Virginia 250 Passport program includes the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, George Mason’s Gunston Hall, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, the National Museum of the United States Army, and the Woodlawn and Pope-Leighey House as part of a “passport” sweepstakes.
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has no intention right now of shipping off a centerpiece of its Chantilly facility to Texas.
The federal budget bill that squeaked through the Republican-led U.S. Senate on Tuesday (July 1) includes a provision directing NASA to transfer the Discovery space shuttle from its longtime home at the Udvar-Hazy Center to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, allocating $85 million toward transportation and construction costs.
A new mural is taking shape in the heart of Fairfax City.
Richmond-based illustrator Bailey Sullivan is currently working on “Fox in the Flowers” and expected to finish painting tomorrow (Friday). The completed mural will be officially unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2 p.m. on July 10.
An especially strong March and a record-setting day in April seem to foreshadow a positive summer for Dulles International Airport.
The airport recorded 1,103,722 passenger enplanements this past March — its second-best passenger total ever for that month, according to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Chryssa Westerlund.
NOVA Parks and the Town of Vienna are partnering for an initiative that could transform a pair of offices into a visitor center for the Washington and Old Dominion Trail.
Fresh off its 50th anniversary last year, the 45-mile trail runs from Shirlington out to Purcellville, with Vienna as its “geographic center,” NOVA Parks Executive Director Paul Gilbert said when announcing the project during an Arbor Day event at the Vienna Town Green last Friday (April 25).
Consideration of a meals tax has gained most of the attention this budget cycle, but Fairfax County supervisors also are looking at increasing the transient-occupancy tax paid on hotel stays.
If adopted next month, the increase from 4% to 6% on stays of less than 30 days will raise an additional $13 million in the coming fiscal year, said Phil Hagen, director of the county’s Department of Management and Budget.
Fairfax County has cultivated an economic win by landing a role as host of the American Wine Society’s annual conference.
The gathering of winemakers, restaurants and connoisseurs, which typically draws more than 650 attendees, will be held this fall at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles Hotel in Chantilly, according to Visit Fairfax, which anticipates that the event will generate at least $1 million in economic impacts.
Barry Biggar, president and CEO of Visit Fairfax, has been honored with the Tower of Dulles award, following in the footsteps of notable figures like Steven F. Udvar-Hazy and senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
Presented annually by the Committee for Dulles, the award honors individuals or organizations that significantly enhance Dulles International Airport and its surrounding economic corridor.
