Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/3108
Black Meetings & Tourism April/May 2009: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 100 FAIRFAX COUNTY Planners will have no trouble finding venues to hold their meetings and incen- tive programs in Fairfax County. The area boasts 96 hotels with 17,000 hotel rooms that cater to budgets from econo- my lodging to four-star luxury proper- ties. Furthermore, Fairfax's 20 meeting hotels offer over 5,000 sq. ft. of space that can accommodate medium to large sized convention and conference groups — from small corporate meet-ups to enor- mous associations. For big events the Dulles Expo and Convention Center is located just six miles from Washington Dulles Airport. The facility is 210,000 sq. ft. with more than 3,000 parking spaces. The complex also boasts a 15,000-sq. ft. conference One of Virginia's most famous architectural and historical land- marks is Monticello, the Charlottesville home of President Thomas Jefferson. Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate and gar- dens, is found in Fairfax County, part of the northeastern area of Virginia near the nation's capital. That area also is home to Alexandria — site of African American Heritage Park and the Alexandria Black History Museum — and Arlington, whose Freedom Park displays artifacts like Martin Luther King's Birmingham jail cell door and pieces of the Berlin Wall. The area located between the York and James rivers in southeastern Virginia includes Jamestowne — which recreates the first permanent English settlement in North America — the Yorktown Battlefield Museum and Colonial Williamsburg, a recre- ation of the colony's 18th century cap- ital. Further south along the state's eastern coast is Newport News, where visitors can tour the Newsome House Museum & Cultural Center, once the home of an African-American attor- ney and civic leader. Virginia Beach Convention Center Photo Credit: Virginia Beach CVB