Who We Are & What We Do

As we near the end of the remarkable 2025, let’s all be grateful for being fortunate enough to live and work in the Charlotte area, North Carolina and the USA.

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The year has been full of success stories, economic prosperity, major population growth and our share of growth challenges, which are still manageable if we commit to actions necessary to address them to continue our region’s prosperity. Public safety must absolutely become the #1 priority for our community with zero tolerance for crime and criminals, and while we have a long way to go to address our transit and traffic issues, voters in Mecklenburg County approved a 1% sales tax investment which provides Charlotte and Mecklenburg towns with needed funding to start tackling the problem. Considering many ups and few downs that our community has experienced this year, we are still luckier than many others but should never take our prosperity for granted and must strive every day to do better. Let’s be determined to have a much better 2026 personally and professionally.

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1. Charlotte’s Regional Visitors Authority (CRVA) sets new records with $1.2 Billion economic impact for the period covering July 2024 – June 2025. The CRVA’s overall economic impact was increased from $1.1 Billion to $1.2 Billion compared to the previous year. We appreciate our partnership with the CRVA.

Our region’s hospitality industry has been experiencing the best times ever with the future looking even brighter, as we in Charlotte have done our part to maintain, enhance and retain hospitality assets, which are critical for the growth of our business and overall economy, by utilizing existing hospitality taxes to invest in mega upgrades to (our arena) and (home of our and teams( while securing those professional teams for Charlotte through 2045. Their impact on our hospitality business in the region and our overall economy has been immense, and we are not taking these assets for granted.

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 2. Holiday Events

• Speedway Christmas Lights from now – Sunday, January 4th at Charlotte Motor Speedway (charlottemotorspeedway.com)

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• Light the Knights Festival, including ice skating, Christmas activities, vendor market and New Year’s celebration at Truist Field Baseball Stadium (milb.com/charlotte-knights)

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• Winferfest (now – January 3rd) and New Year’s Eve event (December 31st) at Carowinds (sixflags.com/carowinds/events)3.

 

3. Charlotte Checkers are in the midst of their 2025 season (charlottecheckers.com) and will have the Stanley Cup (won by their major league affiliate, Florida Panthers, in 2025) on display at their home game at Bojangles Coliseum on Sunday, December 21st.

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4. Bank of America Stadium will be hosting the Duke’s Mayo Bowl Game featuring Wake Forest University vs. Mississippi State University on January 2, 2026 at 8pm. Bank of America Stadium, which will be gearing up for the mega upgrades soon and will be hosting 2026 MLS All-Stars Event, will also be hosting United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) for their world cup send-off game vs. national team of Senegal on May 31, 2026

 

5. Rugby World Cup

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Charlotte has officially submitted a bid to host the 2031 Rugby World Cup.

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Congratulations to Estella Patterson who was recently chosen as CMPD’s new Chief and replacing retiring Chief Johnny Jennings.

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I am so grateful to our HTA members for helping us have our best year ever since the HTA was established in 1994. We are honored to have your involvement and support and hope to see you at our following scheduled events:​

• HTA’s First Quarter Corporate Networking Event – details to come

• HTA’s March 25th Golf Tournament at Highland Creek Golf Club (call us to reserve your spot)

• HTA’s 2026 Gala Event – Thursday, April 23rd at the Charlotte Convention Center – SOLD OUT/WAITLIST

 

Happy Holidays.