Visit Alexandria‘s newest marketing campaign is tapping into the stories behind businesses, tourist attractions and unique personalities.
From now until June, the Unlock Your Story campaign will tell stories all over Alexandria, focusing on the city’s history, small attractions, and unique small businesses, artists and entrepreneurs. The promotion follows Visit Alexandria’s Best Kept Shh! campaign, which launched three years ago and positioned Alexandria as the region’s best kept secret.
“The secret is out,” Visit Alexandria CEO Todd O’Leary said in a release. “Now is the time to place Alexandria squarely in the spotlight and invite visitors to discover more of our destination and create their own stories here. With Unlock Your Story, we’re inviting travelers to connect with the people, places and experiences that make Alexandria distinctive and to leave with memories and personal connections that become part of their own story.”
O’Leary told the Washington Business Journal that Visit Alexandria will spend about $53o,000 on the campaign.
New profile stories published by Visit Alexandria feature Town Crier Ben Fiore-Walker, Port City Brewing Company, Alison Sigethy’s art studio “Fantastical Glass,” and Gravestone Stories, a digital archive.
The city’s tourism bureau is also sponsoring an Alexandria getaway package to visitors worth $1,000. The prizes include a multi-night stay in an Alexandria hotel, passes to attractions in the city, and dining and shopping gift cards.
Visit Alexandria said that the new campaign is the result of months of work and uses storytelling as a call to action.
“While Alexandria benefits from strong awareness of history and Old Town Alexandria among potential visitors, the team identified a primary challenge: limited perceptions lead to limited time in the destination,” Visit Alexandria said in a release. “From centuries-old streets to contemporary culinary and cultural scenes, the campaign highlights the breadth of neighborhoods, small businesses, unique personalities and experiences that make Alexandria more than a day trip and more than visitors expect.”
The news comes as Alexandria faces continued economic uncertainty. Last fall, Visit Alexandria reported a 2% year-over-year decline in revenue per available hotel room. WBJ also reported that the city experienced a year-over-year decline of approximately 3% in hotel occupancy from July to December 2025.
However, the city is also expecting to accomodate thousands of tourists this year throughout events associated with America250 — particularly at Sails on the Potomac, the D.C. area’s only tall ships event happening this summer. It will coincide with the Alexandria Jazz Fest.
Through the new “Unlock Your Story” campaign, visitors to Alexandria are encouraged to submit their own stories to the tourism organization using the hashtag #UnlockYourStoryALX on social media for consideration to be included on the campaign’s website.
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