• The deadline to submit your fair or festival for inclusion in the 2008 version of the Fairs & Festivals of Loudoun County, Virginia brochure is Friday, December 14, 2007. If you would like your fair or festival to be included, click here to find the submission form and an overview of event requirements.
  
  
• On November 15th, the LCVA presented an information session on user-generated reviews, a new initiative on VisitLoudoun.org. With this new feature, visitors will have the opportunity to add comments about Loudoun's tourism products. More and more, website users expect to see user-generated reviews on tourism websites and utilize them as a resource in planning their visits.  For more information, click here.
  
  
• Make sure your upcoming events are included on VisitLoudoun.org. The Events Calendar generates nearly 9,000 unique visitors each month. Submit as many of your future events as possible - visitors use this website up to 4-6 months in advance of their visit! Submitting events is easy! Existing account holders, click here. One-time submissions, click here. Questions? Email Janet Tamassia or call her at 703-771-2170 ext. 16. For more information on LCVA services for special event producers and promoters, click here.
  
  
• We have welcomed two new LCVA staff members. Naomi Kurzyna is our new Project Assistant, helping the Marketing and Sales Departments. Janet Anderson is our new delivery person and will be calling on many of you with LCVA brochure supplies. To be added to the brochure delivery route, please email Naomi Kurzyna.
  
  
• The LCVA received an overwhelming response from the Loudoun household mailing conducted in July. A simple brochure was mailed to all 106,000+ Loudoun households, with information on the benefits of tourism, LCVA services, and the opportunity to request LCVA's tourism publications and DVD. To date, we have received nearly 3,400 responses from Loudoun residents requesting information, a return of 3.2%.

• Dulles Golf Center and Sports Park has won the 2007 Small Business of the Year Award from the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce.
  
  
• Carol Welti, Vice President of Finance and Development at the Washington Airports Task Force, was awarded the Hal Landers Award at the Committee for Dulles Gala on November 9, 2007.
  
  
• Russell Legendre recently joined the Embassy Suites Dulles North as the General Manager.
  
  
• Mark Galbreith recently joined Lansdowne Resort as Director of Sales. With over 17years of hospitality experience, he was previously the director of corporate sales for the Wardman Park Marriott in Washington, DC.
  
  
• Loudoun County's presence on the popular Virginia Civil War Trails program recently was enhanced with the addition of six new historic markers. Five markers were added along the Route 50 corridor (2 in Aldie and 3 in Fauquier County). A marker was also installed at Historic Morven Park in front of the vista to the mansion. Congratulations to the Citizens Committee for the Historic Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville; and to Historic Morven Park for the additions to the Trail.
  
  
• As one of Loudoun County's newest wineries, Fabbioli Cellars has made a stand for the smaller, more European-style of winery, referred to in America as a "boutique" or "Chateau le Garage" winery. Fabbioli Cellars recently won gold medals for its 2006 Chambourcin at the Virginia Governor's Cup Competition and for its 2006 Cabernet Franc at the Town Point Wine Competition. For more information and opening times, please visit Fabbioli.com.
  
  
• Serene Acres recently expanded its horseback riding business and opened Pony Mania, a retail store for "all things pony" in the village of Bluemont. For more information about Serene Acres and Pony Mania please visit SereneAcres.com or Pony-Mania.com.
  
  
• The Goodstone Inn and Estate in Middleburg recently opened its new restaurant, Hilltoppers, and a beautiful new wine cellar. Their newly revamped website features more information on Hilltoppers as well as a range of packages and wine dinners.
  
  
• Best Western, the official hotel of NASCAR, had a very special "four wheeled" guest make an appearance at the new Best Western Dulles Airport last month. Staff and VIP guests were greeted by an official NASCAR promotion street car. Click here to read more and to see a photograph of the car with LCVA Board Chair Bill Gibson and LCVA Board Secretary Carolyn Howell.
  
  
• The Town of Leesburg reports that approximately 3,000 people attended the first Court and Market Days in Historic Downtown Leesburg on October 20, 2007.
  
  
• New retail additions to Historic Downtown Leesburg include "There & Back," a used bookshop, and the "Morning Glory Tea Room."
  
  
• Briar Patch Bed & Breakfast in Middleburg recently opened The Fox Den at Briar Patch, a special event and meeting facility for weddings, parties, and meetings of up to 200 people. The facility is a result of a three-year effort to convert and add onto a tractor barn on the former 47-acre dairy farm. For more information please visit BriarPatchBandB.com.
  
  
• Several Lucketts retailers have created a "Shop Lucketts Weekend" by hosting Holiday Open Houses at their businesses on December 1st and 2nd. Holly Heider Chapple Flowers, On a Whim, Shawn Grove and Bryan Mattraw's wood-fired pottery, Fabbioli Cellars, and Tarara Winery are co-marketing and selling each other's products on this special weekend. For more information on each open house, visit the calendar of events and search for "Category: Shopping."
  
  
• Want to advertise employment opportunities to the industry? You can do so on the LCVA website under Industry Jobs. Email Greg Harp or call him at 703-771-2170 ext. 14 for more information.

If you have any news about your organization you would like to share with the tourism industry in Loudoun County, please contact Chris Geno, Geno@VisitLoudoun.org.