In early June, at its 2025 Annual Conference on Tourism held in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau announced the new name it will take on beginning this fall: Revolutionary Valley. Formed in 1992 with the name Revolutions and Textiles in the Merrimack Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau, the tourism organization based in Lowell, Massachusetts, represents 21 Massachusetts cities and towns, including Acton, Bedford, Billerica, Boxborough, Burlington, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Dunstable, Lexington, Lincoln, Littleton, Lowell, Maynard, Stow, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford, Wilmington, and Woburn.
Brian Bradbury, the organization’s executive director, says this shift is long overdue. “We recognized that the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau (GMV CVB) has not accurately showcased the spirit and depth of the region, as well as its actual footprint,” says Bradbury in a prepared statement. “The Merrimack Valley itself extends further north and east, including into New Hampshire, and the GMV CVB has never been properly aligned to represent this region.”
He also notes the change reflects the region’s broad history. “This is a region rich in revolutionary history, from the American Revolution that began in Lexington and Concord to the Industrial Revolution [advances] in Lowell; and all the major movements that shaped our nation, including the literary revolution of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau, carried forward by Edgar Allen Poe and Jack Kerouac; to the cultural revolution, music revolution, agricultural revolution, art revolution, technological and innovation revolution, and so much more. Leaning into our continued history of pushing the envelope and continually pushing forward with change is an identity we want the world to experience firsthand.”
In this revolutionary spirit, the convention and visitors bureau also is in the process of opening a new visitor center in downtown Lowell, recently brought on a slew of new staff, and debuted an ambassador program for community representatives. Its new website and branding will launch in September.
