Visit Seattle Hires Stephanie Byington as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

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Visit Seattle Hires Stephanie Byington as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

8/20/2024
SEATTLE – Following a nationwide search, Visit Seattle announced that veteran Seattle marketing executive Stephanie Byington will be its next Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) effective July 31, 2024. Byington has led marketing for several influential Seattle area brands including Slalom, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, TCS World Travel, Nordstrom, and Starbucks. At Visit Seattle, Byington will oversee all marketing and brand development initiatives to promote tourism to the city across travel segments, including meetings and conventions, leisure, transient, and international markets.

Stephanie Byington

Byington has worked in the marketing industry in Seattle for over two decades and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from different sectors, including wine, professional services, and consumer brands – giving her a unique position primed for innovative thinking.

“Marketing is how we position Seattle as a premier travel destination,” said Tammy Blount-Canavan, President and CEO of Visit Seattle. “We searched far and wide for the best candidate for the CMO position and found it right in our backyard with Stephanie. She has spent years honing her skills at some of the biggest brands that call our great city home. We’re looking forward to seeing Stephanie put her magic to work for us.”

Byington also has extensive experience in the travel and tourism space, having served as Vice President of Marketing and Product Development at tour operator TCS World Travel as well as Director of Global Advertising and Sponsorships for Continental Airlines. At TCS World Travel, she won the Global Leadership Award from Travelopia (its parent company) in 2019.

“Stephanie is a results-driven marketer who made a lasting impact at TCS World Travel, where she served as Vice President of Marketing and Product Development,” said Shelley Cline, President of TCS World Travel. ”During her time at TCS she successfully led many efforts that drove greater awareness of our company and product, including a re-launch of the brand, an overhaul of our website and the creation of a new PR strategy. I am excited to see Stephanie return to the travel and tourism space in her new role with Visit Seattle, and am looking forward to seeing what amazing things she will do for our city.”

Byington has broad expertise in the brand and experiential marketing spaces. A longtime Seattle resident, Byington is an esteemed leader with proven success in developing high-performing teams. In her previous role as Sr. Director of Marketing at consulting firm Slalom, she developed Slalom’s first-ever global brand marketing campaign, which resulted in a material increase in new customer acquisition and significant return on investment. Before Slalom, she was Director of Product Innovation at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, spearheading the Elicit Wine Project – an innovation hub for value creation.

Byington steps into the Chief Marketing Officer role at Visit Seattle during an exciting time, with the recent arrival of Seattle Convention Center’ Summit building – which is noted for its commitment to sustainability; the city’s extensive waterfront renovations currently underway; and the FIFA World Cup coming to Seattle in 2026, which will be a major economic lift for the city. Current marketing campaigns from Visit Seattle include Kissing in the Rain, a traveling rain booth enticing travelers from warm-weather cities to experience the wonder of Seattle rain; I Know A Place, a video series inviting travelers to experience an insiders’ tour of Seattle led by notable locals; and Bookmarked, which embraces Seattle’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature and honors a story set in the Emerald City read by personalities like Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

“I moved to Seattle thinking I would be here for two years and that was 20 years ago,” said Byington. “I am looking forward to sharing all the things that have kept me here including our incredible food and wine scene, the vibrant arts community, the many ways to connect with nature, and the leadership of companies in the business and technology space.”

In her free time, Byington is working on a graduate certification in teaching English as a second language with hopes of teaching English to adult immigrants. She’s a Certified Specialist of Wine and volunteers with Food Lifeline, a local nonprofit organization addressing food insecurity.

Byington replaces Visit Seattle’s former CMO and SVP Ali Daniels, who was with the organization for over 12 years and now serves as SVP Marketing for Seattle Kraken.

About Visit Seattle
Visit Seattle has served as the official destination marketing organization (DMO) for Seattle and King County for more than 50 years. A 501(c)(6) organization, Visit Seattle enhances the economic prosperity of the region through global destination branding along with competitive programs and campaigns in leisure travel marketing, convention sales and overseas tourism development. Visit www.visitseattle.org.

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