Nearly two years into his tenure, Todd O’Leary is steering Visit Alexandria through a pivotal moment. With a new strategic plan, a major global spotlight from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and shifting travel dynamics in the Washington, D.C., region, O’Leary is focused on elevating Alexandria’s international profile while ensuring tourism growth benefits both visitors and residents.
You’ve now been leading Visit Alexandria for nearly two years. What have been your top priorities in strengthening Alexandria’s positioning within the highly competitive U.S. inbound market?
I have very much enjoyed making so many connections here in my first two years. One of my first priorities was working with the community to establish a new five-year strategic plan for Visit Alexandria. It had been decades since the organization had gone through this process, so combined with my arrival to the destination, it was mission-critical to get that accomplished.
Amongst other things, the strategic plan is helping us focus our destination marketing strategies based on current socio-political and economic dynamics at play – especially here in the Washington DC metropolitan area. This has meant doubling-down on critical partnerships that help keep Alexandria top of mind. Key partners for us include Brand USA, Destination DC, and the Northern Virginia Tourism Partnership. We have also had to make some tough decisions relating to our target markets and go-to-market strategies. Using insightful data has been key to us in determining all of this.
We are also fortunate to be serving as a team base camp for the Croatian national football team as part of the FIFA World Cup 2026. This is helping to raise Alexandria’s profile – both domestically and internationally – as we promote the destination to soccer fans traveling to North America for this global event.
With the launch of the “Unlock Your Story” campaign, how are you working to shift perceptions of Alexandria from a day-trip destination to a longer-stay experience for international visitors?
I talk a lot with the team about “owning our own sunshine.” I want us to seize on the increasing amount of ‘sunshine’ that Alexandria is earning. We’ve worked hard to raise our profile as a stand-out destination. Consistently high rankings in Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure, amongst others, have really helped us do that. Additionally, we’ve been in market with our “Best Kept Shhh” campaign for three years. Well, now the secret is out about Alexandria, and we’re working harder than ever to shout it from the rooftops!
The ‘Unlock Your Story’ campaign aims to capitalize on this banner year (America 250 and World Cup) for Alexandria. Through the art of storytelling, we are showcasing the destination as a modern, cosmopolitan destination steeped in history. But it’s not just the story of George Washington and 1776, it’s also the stories that have happened over the course of our 277 years as a city, and those stories being made in present day. Moreover, the campaign is about how visitors can create their own stories in Alexandria by connecting with our locals, exploring our incredible neighborhoods, and experiencing things here that they can’t anywhere else.
Also, being a part of the Washington DC metro area adds to the dynamism in our local tourism economy. We need a strong Washington DC, especially with the international market, so our partnership with Elliott and his team at Destination DC helps raise Alexandria’s profile. That said, we also have an increasing depth of tourism products and experiences here in Alexandria that our audiences find really compelling, so establishing our own voice in this way is something we’re working on.
Alexandria will serve as Team Base Camp for Croatia during the FIFA World Cup 2026. What does securing this global spotlight mean for your long-term international strategy, particularly in key European markets?
We are over-the-moon excited about this opportunity! For a city of our size to be playing a part in one of the largest global sports events is an honor and something we are laser-focused on getting right. We’ve established several destination-level goals that are guiding our work on World Cup.
First and foremost, we want to make sure the Croatian team is well taken care of. Alexandria will be their home away from home for about a month, so ensuring they have what they need to perform at their best is critical.
We’re also making sure our local businesses know what to expect and how they can really roll out the red carpet for visitors. They’re already looking for products to sell in their boutiques, special F&B options, how to dress their business with Croatian décor, and so on.
From a promotional standpoint, we are seeking to maximize Alexandria’s exposure as not only host to the Croatian team, but also a strategically located destination with easy access to many east coast World Cup match cities. Additionally, we know there will be a significant amount of media coverage following the team and the event overall. So, making sure we’re sharing stories about Alexandria for their consideration will be another part of our marketing mix. Here again, our partnerships with other industry-endemic organizations will help us to amplify our messages during World Cup. And finally, we’re keen to capitalize on the “ripple effects” of World Cup to keep Alexandria top-of-mind with our key audiences well after the event has concluded.
Hotel performance has seen some softening over the past year. How is Visit Alexandria balancing short-term revenue challenges with long-term destination brand building?
This has been one of our biggest challenges, especially at a time when Alexandria’s profile has been on the rise. To be sure, the entire Washington DC metro area is being disproportionately impacted by many of the federal government decisions of the last year. Meetings, in particular, have really felt the pinch as spending on government and government-adjacent meetings has been greatly reduced. While Alexandria is primarily a leisure destination, the lack of meetings, and the lack of meaningful compression from other regional meetings-centric destinations are causing a softening of both rate and occupancy.
We are fortunate to have a very supportive city government that values tourism. Despite their own fiscal challenges, they have helped us retain as much money for marketing as possible. This has been critical to realize the full potential of our new campaign that I outlined earlier. Another key dimension of this dynamic has been that tourism is rightly seen as a key economic development tool here in Alexandria. Our city leaders know that destination marketing not only helps create demand for tourism; it also helps attract businesses, residents, and higher education students to Alexandria. The “halo effect” of our destination marketing efforts are doing yeoman’s work in our community!
You’ve led marketing efforts in destinations like Sonoma County, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. What best practices from those markets are you applying in Alexandria to deepen global partnerships and trade engagement?
The experiences I’ve gained from each of my previous destinations have been so formative on how we’re promoting Alexandria. The critical importance of relationships cannot be underscored enough. Our relationships with the trade, media and other industry-endemic partners are foundational. Having solid relationships from my other destinations has helped our footing here in Alexandria. I also think that learning the art of scalability has been crucial. Whether we’re in growth mode, or constricting in leaner times, being able to properly scale our efforts has been important. I will also say that being scrappy, especially with lean budgets, can create some of the best work. While we all love, and need, money to do this important work, I’ve done some of my best work with small budgets.
As America250 events approach and major sports tourism opportunities expand, how are you ensuring that tourism growth enhances resident quality of life alongside visitor spending?
In a community like Alexandria, this is critical! We are fortunate that our residents rank tourism as tops when it comes to how they feel about Alexandria. I’m very keen to ensure that remains the case. There can be isolated instances of over-tourism here, so that is something we keep an eye on. Our five-year strategic plan identifies Destination Management and Destination Alignment as two of our key organizational focus areas. Ensuring that we steward the destination in a way that generates visitor spending balanced with resident quality of life is probably our biggest charter. We will also be working to develop a tourism master plan for Alexandria and envision engaging myriad stakeholders in that project – from our members to elected officials and yes, our residents. The goal will be to envision our path forward for the community through a tourism lens.
At a time of economic uncertainty and global tension, why is travel — particularly international travel to U.S. destinations like Alexandria — more important than ever?
This is such a great question and one that feels particularly important as we’re gearing up to celebrate the 250th birthday of the country. As we talk about how to position Alexandria during the nation’s semiquincentennial, we keep coming back to how, in many ways, Alexandria’s stories are the stories of the United States. This “great experiment” of a country is indeed still unfolding. And so too here in Alexandria. Telling our sometimes-uncomfortable history is not always what we lead with as destination marketers. But in that uncomfortable storytelling is where growth, connection and learning can take place. Mark Twain’s famous quote that ‘travel is fatal to prejudice and bigotry’ is perhaps more important than ever. We believe that travel is a force for good.
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