Seven states carry awards home from annual regional recognitions
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 21, 2019) – The West Volusia Tourism Advertising Authority, based in DeLand, Fla., won one of three Best Marketing Shining Example Awards for its video-based “What’s Up in West Volusia” campaign (budget of $100,000 – $499,000). The recognition was one of a dozen Shining Example Awards presented at the Southeast Tourism Society (STS) annual Connections conference in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Tourism marketing draws much Shining Example attention, with two other awards based on budgets and one based on niche marketing. The other winners of Shining Example Best Marketing Awards:
- The Marion County (W.Va.) Convention and Visitors Bureau won for its “Middle of Everywhere” campaign (budget of less than $100,000).
- Louisiana’s Northshore (the St. Tammany Parish Tourism and Convention Commission) won for its “Tammany Taste” food tourism campaign (budget of more than $500,000).
- Discover DeKalb (DeKalb County, Ga.) won the Best Niche Marketing Award for its campaign to identify the Atlanta-area county as an LGBT-friendly destination.
- Seven states took home Shining Example Awards, and Mississippi ended up with four of the program’s 12 honors.
- The Shining Example Partnership Award for cooperative tourism work went to the LeFleur Museum District in Jackson. This group of four museums, all located at a strategic interstate highway interchange, produced an economic impact of almost $36 million for Jackson in 2017. Its members are the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, the Mississippi Forestry and Agriculture Museum, the Mississippi Children’s Museum and the Museum of Natural Science of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
- The Shining Example Rising Star Award went to Brian Rucker, sports sales director at the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau. One of Rucker’s accomplishments was pushing aggressive outreach into niche and non-traditional sports such as cornhole and pickleball.
- The Trail of Honor, a multi-day annual event honoring America’s veterans in Jackson, Miss., received the STS Top 20 Event or Festival of the Year Award.
- The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History, two powerful museums in downtown Jackson, Miss., that had an immediate impact upon opening in late 2017, have been named the Escape to the Southeast Travel Attraction of the Year.
Overall tourism success is the focus of some of the most coveted Shining Example Awards. This year’s winners:
- The Jackson County (N.C.) Tourism Development Authority was named the Tourism Office of the Year for organizations with budgets of less than $2 million. One of its accomplishments was generating more than $30 million in public relations exposure for the county in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
- Visit South Walton in Florida was named the Tourism Office of the Year for organizations with budgets of more than $2 million. Its impactful work included expanding beach access, opening a new park and organizing relief work following Hurricane Michael.
Two individuals were singled out for Shining Example Awards:
- The Beacon Award, which honors someone for outstanding tourism leadership over a career, went to Alisa Bailey. Bailey has held the top state tourism job in both Virginia and West Virginia and now is the CEO of the Charleston (W.Va.) Convention and Visitors Bureau.
- The annual Government Tourism Leadership Award went to Alabama Congressman Robert Aderholt.
Two more awards capped the 2019 presentations.
- Bill Chapin, CEO of See Rock City, received the Dorothy Hardman Spirit of STS Award for his devotion to STS. Chapin is one of the Southeast’s biggest tourism proponents and has been an STS supporter for decades.
- The Chairman’s Award went to Charles Ryan Associates in Richmond, Va., for its support of STS marketing efforts.