Meet Rachel Whitten, New CEO of Visit Greenville NC

Rachel Whitten has spent the last 28 years living, working, volunteering, and building relationships across Greenville, North Carolina. While she may not have known it at the time, it was all preparation to represent the destination as CEO of Visit Greenville NC, the DMO she has been a part of for seven years.

Whitten was so recently promoted from vice president of sales and services to the top role that her email signature has yet to be updated. The change in leadership figures to be a seamless transition. Whitten knows the community well, and has the experience to know many see it first as primarily as a college town or a healthcare hub.

Both characteristics are true, but there’s more to explore. Inspired Insights spoke to Whitten about her vision for leading Visit Greenville NC.

What insights from your previous role will shape your vision for the organization, and what new perspectives are you bringing to this leadership position?

One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that success in destination marketing is ultimately about relationships. Facilities matter. Hotels matter. Marketing matters. But what truly moves a destination forward is a community of partners working toward a shared vision.

As CEO, I want to continue building on the strong foundation that's already in place while looking for new opportunities to connect tourism, talent attraction, quality of life, economic development, education, and community pride. Greenville-Pitt County's story is stronger than ever, and I believe our role is to help tell that story in a way that creates benefits for residents, visitors, students, and businesses alike.

What are some of the major successes you've been a part of at the DMO and what made them so special?

Throughout my time with Visit Greenville NC, I've had the opportunity to work with organizations across a wide range of industries to bring meetings, conferences, conventions, and special events to Greenville-Pitt County. As someone who has spent much of my career focused on sales and client relationships, helping organizations choose Greenville for their events has been especially rewarding. Every group that decides to meet here brings new visitors to our hotels, restaurants, venues, and local businesses, creating economic impact while introducing people to our community.

I'm also incredibly proud of the growth of our sports tourism efforts. Working alongside outstanding partners, we've expanded facilities, attracted new tournaments and championships, and strengthened Greenville's reputation as a destination where athletes, families, and event owners know they'll have a great experience. We've created opportunities for visitors to play here while generating significant benefits for our local economy.

Every successful event becomes another opportunity to showcase what makes this community unique.

How do you see artificial intelligence and emerging technologies factoring into Visit Greenville NC's destination marketing strategy?

AI is already changing how people discover destinations, research travel, and make decisions, so it's something every destination organization needs to be paying attention to. From a marketing perspective, AI has tremendous potential to help us better understand audience behavior, identify trends, personalize content, and improve the effectiveness of our campaigns. Internally, it can help our team spend less time on repetitive administrative tasks and more time focused on strategy, creativity, relationship building, and serving our partners.

All that said, tourism remains a people business. AI may help someone discover Greenville-Pitt County, but it won't replace the welcome they receive from a hotel front desk agent, a restaurant server, a volunteer at a sporting event, or a local resident sharing their favorite local spot. Technology can open the door, but people create the experience. Our goal isn't to use innovation for innovation's sake. It's to help more people discover that Greenville-Pitt County offers far more than they remember, and to make it easier than ever for them to choose to be here now.

What do you see as Greenville's unique competitive advantages in the tourism landscape?

Greenville-Pitt County occupies a unique position in North Carolina. We have the amenities, opportunities, and energy of a much larger community while maintaining the accessibility, affordability, and authenticity that visitors increasingly value.

Our strengths include a vibrant downtown, East Carolina University, Pitt Community College, a growing sports tourism infrastructure, strong healthcare and business sectors, diverse event venues, and an exceptional quality of life. We also have something that's harder to quantify: people who genuinely care about making visitors feel welcome.

Moving forward, we'll continue focusing on the experiences that make Greenville-Pitt County distinctive rather than trying to be something we're not. The destinations that stand out today are the ones with authentic stories, and Greenville-Pitt County has an abundance of those stories to tell.

What perceptions do you think people have of Greenville from afar, and how will you play off of and perhaps against it?

For people who haven't visited recently, Greenville is often viewed primarily as a college town or a healthcare hub. While both of those are important parts of our identity, they're only part of the story. What impresses many visitors is the depth and diversity of experiences they find here. From our culinary scene and outdoor recreation opportunities to our arts, sports, festivals, and growing business community, Greenville-Pitt County offers far more than they remember.

Part of our job is to embrace the strengths people already associate with Greenville-Pitt County while introducing them to experiences they may not know exist.

Photo Credit: Visit Greenville NC