Visit Philadelphia’s new CEO says city safety and ‘vibrancy’ are priorities

Starting next month, Angela Val, a 17-year veteran of Visit Philadelphia, will return as the tourism group’s new president and CEO, as the city continues to recoup hospitality business lost during the pandemic.

Val is the nonprofit’s third chief executive since its founding in 1996, and its first chief executive who is Black.

“We are competing with destinations across this country,” Val said Friday in a phone interview. “I think that it’s more competitive than ever. And we’re all doing a lot more with a little bit less than what we had before the pandemic.”

The top role has been vacant since the death of former CEO Jeff Guaracino, who had battled cancer, in December. Guaracino took over in 2018 from the organization’s first CEO Meryl Levitz.

Val worked at Visit Philly for 17 years during Levitz’s tenure, from 1998 to 2015, rising from executive assistant and receptionist to chief external affairs officer. She went on to become the deputy executive director of Philadelphia’s host committee for the 2016 Democratic National Convention and then served for nearly five years as the chief administrative officer at the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, until last June.

“Having worked closely with Angela ... I’ve seen her passion for Philadelphia firsthand,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement. “I’m confident her commitment to collaboration and ability to develop strategic initiatives will further position Philadelphia for a strong tourism rebound after the pandemic and create new and exciting opportunities.”

Over the next month, Val will wrap up her current position as chief operating officer of Tempest, a digital marketing agency. During the pandemic, she also led the economic reopening initiative Ready.Set.Philly!, a collaboration between the city and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

The initiative has addressed physical safety concerns in the city, Val said, and that area will continue to be a focus for her at Visit Philly.

“I think that is the very foundation we have to deal with first,” Val said. “No matter whether you’re coming here for work, whether you’re a visitor, whether you’re moving here or a resident. Everybody wants for the city to be safe and clean.”

As people continue to emerge from the pandemic, attracting “more vibrancy” to Center City is important, too, she said.

“No one wants to visit a city that doesn’t have any people downtown.”

Visit Philly currently has a “very local” media and advertising buy, she noted, to encourage people to go out for a lunch, take a walk, and enjoy happy hour after work “so that vibrancy starts to come back.”

Changing travel trends — such as flexible and remote work arrangements, and people’s focus on wellness — are also going to affect how the city is marketed to tourists, she said.

Val’s plans for Visit Philly include working more closely with the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, particularly as the city faces strong competition from destinations nationwide vying for business in the pandemic recovery.

Philadelphia is unusual among big cities for having two destination marketing organizations that oversee different segments of the tourism market, instead of one unified group.

While Visit Philly promotes leisure tourism, the convention and visitors bureau works to attract business groups, as well as international tourists. Both groups draw funding from the city’s hotel room tax.

“What’s unique about me is I’ve worked at both. I know both organizations,” Val said. “I see, moving forward, us working far more collaboratively on a lot of initiatives.”

Val grew up in Maryland and moved to Philadelphia more than 30 years ago to attend Drexel University, where she studied hospitality management.

She called her new role at Visit Philly a “dream job.”

“It’s an opportunity for me to give back to a city and an organization that I feel like has given me so much,” Val said. “I’m really excited about working, not just with Visit Philadelphia, but with all of our partners as we look toward 2026,” the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.