Who We Are & What We Do

Thanks to the remarkable support and involvement of our members, 2025 was by far the most successful year ever for the HTA since the organization started more than three decades ago.

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Our members helped us achieve our many goals at the highest level and their active participation made it possible for every HTA meeting and event to be sold out. “Helping members with growing their business and addressing their business challenges” has been our primary mission and our members have provided us with the passion, encouragement and energy to elevate our efforts even more in 2026 to make things better for members, our industry and our community as a whole.

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We are proud to continue doing our diligent part to keep our region’s economy vibrant and will do more to address our city’s challenges.

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We all need to be grateful each and every day for being fortunate to live and work in Charlotte region. Let me touch on the following items:

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1. Loss of a Hospitality Hero

If you have not already heard about the sad news about Ravi Patel, I am writing to let you know that Ravi had a heart attack while playing golf at a course in India on January 21st and passed away.

Ravi, who was a tremendous pioneer for the hospitality industry in the Charlotte region, in North Carolina and throughout the United States, was a board member of the HTA, was one of the original founders of the HTA, the CRVA (Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority) and also the national AAHOA (Asian American Hotel Owners Association). He was my hero, my mentor and my dear friend, who I will miss dearly.

Words cannot describe the remarkable impacts that Ravi had on our hospitality industry, our region’s economy and our community as a whole. I am a believer in the “power of 1 (person)” and having had the opportunity of knowing and working with Ravi for over four decades, he validated my belief about how one person can make a positive difference for everything and everyone he touches.

I, and many of us in Charlotte, were privileged to have the opportunity of working with and benefiting from Ravi’s visionary leadership and his remarkable dedication and will miss him tremendously.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, who had his funeral service in India and are preparing for a celebration of life for him in Charlotte. Once details of this event have been finalized, I will let you all know.

 

2. Queens Feast Charlotte Restaurant Week

You still have time to enjoy great food and fantastic value at over 120 of the best area restaurants during Restaurant Week that started on January 23rd and will end on February 1, 2026. Click here for more details.

 

3. Important Primary Elections on Tuesday, March 3, 2026

This year’s very important primary elections are being held on with starting from to . I hate stupid primary elections as many don’t vote in the primaries, political affiliations prevent many to choose the right candidates and most winners of primary elections will go on to win in the general election. Please vote on or before March 3rd and check vote.mecknc.gov for more details.

 

4. Help us Empower your Employees to Have a Better Life

To appreciate and retain our employees, we must do more to empower our workforce with the opportunity of having a better life and elevate their earnings. More education is obviously a catalyst to do so.

I encourage you to learn about many available low cost or free educations opportunities and help your employees to take advantage of them.

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Johnson & Wales University, which is renowned for its culinary program, is starting a hotel management degree program at their Charlotte campus this year that would help elevate careers of many area hospitality workers. Better yet, if you have graduated from high school, JWU is offering free tuition nationwide to anyone with a grade point average of 3.2 or better and family income of up to $80,000 (60% of tuition covered for income of $80,000 - $200,000).

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Please take advantage of this opportunity and also look at other affordable opportunities at Central Piedmont Community College. Let me know if you need more information.

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5. Schedules of Upcoming Events

• Charlotte Checkers Hockey Team (click here)

• Charlotte Knights Baseball Team (click here)

• Spectrum Center (click here) **ACC Basketball Tournament 3/10 – 3/14

• Bank of America Stadium (click here)

• Charlotte Motor Speedway (click here)

• Carolina Ascent @ Memorial Stadium (click here)

• Carolina Anthem, Major League Rugby (click here)

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Allow me to express my gratitude to our over 400 attendees at the HTA’s January 14th General Meeting and to the wonderful management and staff at the beautiful Sheraton/Le Meridien Hotel Complex for graciously hosting the event and networking event. Our speaking for this meeting included:

• Charlotte new Chief of Police, Stella Patterson

• Charlotte City Manager, Marcus Jones

• CEO of Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, Steve Bagwell

• Charlotte Hornets/Spectrum Center, Shelly Cayette-Weston, President of Business Operations

• Founder of Charlotte Restaurant Week, Bruce Hensley

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I am immensely grateful to our HTA members for allowing us the pleasure of working with and for you and hope to see you at the HTA’s following events:

• HTA’s February Corporate Networking Event – for HTA Corporate Members

• HTA’s March Golf Tournament – Wednesday, March 25th at Highland Creek Golf Club

• HTA’s 2026 Annual Gala Event – Thursday, April 23rd at the Charlotte Convention Center (sold out)

• HTA’s May General Meeting – date TBA

• HTA’s June Golf Tournament – Wednesday, June 3rd at Rocky River Golf Club