PAUL F WESLEY
Paul Bencivengo
by Cynthia Marone
The hospitality bug bit Paul Bencivengo early—though he didn’t know it until much later. Today he is President/COO of Visit Bucks County (VBC), but at the dawn of his career, he was a jack-of-all-trades at a Philadelphia seafood restaurant with dreams of opening his own eatery. “I was a busboy at Bay Street. I became a waiter, then a host. I started doing inventory on Sunday nights, then I became a prep cook — I wanted to learn all the facets of running a restaurant,” Paul, who started at the now-shuttered spot when he was a sophomore at Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia, said. “My friends and I had this big dream of opening our own restaurant. We even had a name — The Great Lake.”
After a quick pause, he adds with a laugh: “Now that I think about, could I get away from the water?”
That dream was eventually put on the back burner as Paul pursued a diverse, award-winning career that has taken him from baseball diamonds to college classrooms, and from a stint with the Eagles to digital duties at a now-defunct basketball website. Though eclectic at first glance, each role gave Paul, who was named the head of Bucks County’s tourism promotion agency in 2019, the chance to see the people who participated walk away with a great experience and even better memories. It’s a mindset that meshes perfectly with tourism and hospitality, but Paul—even though he dreamed of owning a restaurant—didn’t initially aspire to either.
At Temple University, Paul was ready to get his bachelor’s degree in history or accounting. He went with the latter until an advertising class changed his mind and his major. “I found it just tapped more into my creative side. I can remember doing presentations and reports where you had to come up with campaigns for companies. I felt like I really thrived doing those projects. After that class, I switched to marketing,” the Philadelphia native said.
With his newfound passion, Paul knew what he wanted to do next: work in professional sports. While pursuing his master’s degree in tourism and hospitality at Temple, his dream came true when he took a year internship as a corporate sales and services coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles. “I got to work on a lot of cool things, like putting together the presentation when they were looking to do the naming rights for Lincoln Financial Field,”
Paul, who spent his college summer breaks working as the Assistant Director of Operations for the Alexandria Aces minor league baseball team in Louisiana and as an instructor at the Andy Lopez Baseball Camp in Florida, said. “I loved it, but you worked really long hours. At the end of the day, I thought maybe it wasn’t for me.”
Right at that time, Paul had rekindled his relationship with his high school sweetheart, Anne Marie, when they reconnected at their five-year reunion. Today they are married 20 years and have two children, Ryan and Marisa, and a Schnoodle named Izzy.
But back then, while Paul was starting to think about a future different from the one he initially envisioned, professors who had tapped his talents for a teaching assistantship in graduate school were thinking of him for another position entirely. During his assistantship, Paul, who is a self-described self-taught techie, guided undergraduate students through Microsoft Office lessons by day and went to his own graduate classes by night. “The same professors who offered me the assistantship offered me a full-time job with the new School of Tourism & Hospitality Management. My job basically was to support their technology needs and help them leverage technology in the classroom. I was there to help move them into the 21st century,” Paul, who was the school’s technology director for almost three years, said.
But sports came calling once again, this time as a content manager and webmaster for HoopsTV.com. Scott O’Neil, the future CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, remembered Paul from his internship with the Eagles and brought him on board. Paul happily joined the site that was, as he describes it, “ … like ESPN but just for basketball.” He was there a year before it went dark, but its end was the start of something much bigger. “Someone reached out from Temple that I had known who was aware of a technical position at the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau. They were looking to hire someone to launch their website and start their e-communications,”
Paul, who has earned several honors throughout his time at VBC including the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce’s Shot in the Arm with Enthusiasm Award and Travel + Leisure magazine’s Social Media in Travel & Tourism Award as well as being named one of the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer’s 40 Under 40, said. “It was the perfect marriage of technical and marketing, which I always feel is my sweet spot. Now I feel my skill set has grown through the years.”
While he was expanding his repertoire over almost nine years as the senior manager of marketing and communications at the city’s tourism promotion agency, Paul was also connecting with tourism offices from Philadelphia’s surrounding counties. He had become a Langhorne resident in 2002, and his interest in his new hometown was growing. According to Paul, longtime Bucks County resident Sharon Rossi, who was with the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation that would soon become Visit Philadelphia, encouraged Paul to explore opportunities at VBC. He joined the agency in 2009 as its marketing and communications director. He was named vice president in 2014 and served in that role until he became president five years later.
Each step of the way, Paul had a colleague, boss or professor who remembered him, his talents and his drive when a position opened up. They served as the guiding lights to where he is now, and Paul does all he can to return the favor by aiding others. In fact, he feels it’s his professional duty. “I’m really passionate about helping students and individuals that are looking for their next opportunities because so many people opened a door for me along the way,” Paul said.
Paul is a board member of the United Way of Bucks County and vice chairman of the U.S Travel Association’s Destinations Council Board of Advisors. “Hospitality is so important and so impactful. We meet so many different people within and outside of hospitality. Our positions just lend us to knowing lots of people in various positions. I want to use those connections for good.”
VBC itself is an important connection between people and the county’s offerings, but the agency has also become a lifeline for many in the hospitality field as they deal with COVID-19’s impact on dining, travel and public gatherings. VBC became more focused on how people and their businesses can find the resources they need so they can go on, whether it is via various hospitality associations or the state or on the county level through an organization like the Bucks County Workforce Development Board, of which Paul is a board member. “We had to step back and think about what are the ways we could support the industry as we go through this,” Paul said. He also noted there is also an ongoing spotlight on outdoor and virtual activities as well as safety protocols and approaches such as takeout and alfresco dining, timed-tickets and contactless check-ins. “I wanted to make sure we could pivot and support the hospitality businesses.”
Paul is hopeful, as many are, that a vaccine rollout will only mean positive things. He admits he has no crystal ball, but he is confident Bucks County and its merchants, restaurants, hotels, museums and more will be ready to welcome visitors back when the time comes so those people can have the time of their lives. “That’s part of what makes me tick,” he said. “Helping other people either reach their goals or seeing others happy makes me happy.”
Cynthia Marone is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Philadelphia.