PA tourism board Visit Philadelphia names Jeff Guaracino president and CEO
Visit Philadelphia, the tourism board for the reigning Super Bowl champs’ host city, has named Jeff Guarcino its second president and chief executive.
Jeff Guaracino returns to Visit Philadelphia as its new CEO and president. / Visit Philadelphia
Guarcino has been more than familiar with the organization, having spent over a decade there in leadership roles since 2001. He most recently held the same role for Philly-based organization Welcome America.
Visit Philadelphia has been considered an engine for the city’s tourism industry, generating over 1m hotel room nights in Center City in 2017. The greater Philadelphia area had also welcomed 43.3 million people, 88% of them for leisure, who brought $11.5 billion in economic impact for the region in their visits.
Some of Guarcino’s accomplishments from his first stint with the tourism org: Philly's More Fun When You Sleep Over, With Love, Philadelphia XOXO, With Art Philadelphia, and Philly Homegrown. He had also developed major LGBTQ campaigns for the city: Philadelphia – Get Your History Straight And Your Nightlife Gay.
"After an extensive search that identified top-tier national candidates, Jeff was the unanimous choice of our search committee," said Manuel N. Stamatakis, chair of Visit Philadelphia's board of directors. "With more than 20 years of national and international tourism industry experience, a proven track record and deep Philadelphia roots, Jeff is uniquely qualified for this position. We are confident that Jeff's leadership will further elevate Philadelphia's stature for both U.S. and global audiences."
Guaracino added: "As a native Philadelphian, I'm excited to return to Visit Philadelphia at a time when there is so much opportunity in the tourism industry to showcase our beautiful city and region and to generate additional dollars for our economy. The work at Visit Philadelphia doesn't just bring visitors to our region, it helps make Philadelphia a more vital and better place to live and do business."
Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney said: "Jeff is passionate about Philadelphia, and I'm confident in his expertise to become the president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia. This new role is a natural expansion of his longstanding enthusiasm for Philadelphia and will enable him to leverage his expertise to drive tourism to our great city."
The home of the Super Bowl champion Eagles was sure to get a bump in visitors earlier this week as the NFL and Hyundai took over the city to kick off the football season.