Angela Val runs Visit Philadelphia, the city's official destination marketing organisation, and she got there the long way round: her first job with the organisation was answering phones at reception. Speaking on the Suite Success podcast with host Katie Cline, Val traced a three-decade career through Philadelphia's hospitality world, including a stint as deputy executive director of the Philadelphia 2016 Democratic National Convention organising committee, before becoming president and CEO in May 2022.
Her Philadelphia story starts with a shrug. Val arrived from Maryland to study at Drexel University and initially found the city underwhelming — too small, too few hotels, no convention centre. Then the Pennsylvania Convention Center opened in 1995 and, under mayor Ed Rendell, hospitality became a civic priority. By graduation, the city Val had dismissed was transforming, and she stayed to help shape it. She now describes Philadelphia as "a gem between two rivers," referring to the Schuylkill and the Delaware.
Much of the podcast centres on how you actually market a city. Val frames Visit Philadelphia's work as the "people attraction business," arguing that shifting a destination's perception matters as much as changing its reality. She's watching two landmark moments ahead: America's 250th anniversary and the FIFA World Cup, both of which she believes can deliver benefits stretching well beyond tourism revenue — civic pride included.
The practical highlight for travellers is Val's personal 48-hour itinerary. Her picks: bed down at Ann and Bell, a boutique hotel in Fishtown converted from a restored 18th-century women's asylum and decorated like an Anthropologie store come to life. Day one loops in vintage shopping in Northern Liberties (she recommends the shop Lost and Found), a self-guided bakery crawl using the city's bakery map, then Penn's Landing on the waterfront for museums and a bike path leading into the historic district — Independence Hall, the Betsy Ross House, Benjamin Franklin's grave and the National Constitution Center — before a quiet stop in Washington Square.
Day two moves to Rittenhouse Square for more shopping and outdoor cafes, then up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Beyond the itinerary, Val points to the city's practical charms: a major airport only about 15 minutes from downtown, all the major stadiums in one transit-friendly district (soon to be redeveloped around a new arena for the 76ers and Flyers), and a plan to cap Interstate 95 at Penn's Landing, creating a park connecting the waterfront directly to Centre City.
Why should a traveller care? Because Philadelphia often gets reduced to cheesesteaks and Rocky steps, while the people selling it describe something broader: a walkable city where food, history and neighbourhoods sit within easy reach of each other. Val's own path — arriving unimpressed and leaving besotted — is a decent proxy for what a first-time visitor might expect. If you've been putting off a Philadelphia trip until it "has more going on," the CEO's argument is that the moment has already arrived.
This story is based on the Suite Success podcast episode from Skift.
