Mount Airy’s Tourism Development Authority and the Surry County Tourism Partnership of Surry County have each struck gold at an annual award ceremony for the The Destination Marketing Association of North Carolina (DMANC).
According to TDA Director of Tourism and Marketing Jessica Icenhour Roberts, The DMANC holds its annual ceremony to award those for innovative, best practices, creativity and outstanding efforts in tourism marketing.
The Award in Gold for Best Newsletter went to the Mount Airy Tourism Development Authority for its “Mayberry to Merlot” newsletter and the Tourism Partnership of Surry County’s gold award was for Best Destination Marketing Initiative for its Ohio campaign.
“It’s an honor for both organizations to receive these awards especially because we are being compared to other agencies throughout the state,” said Roberts. “To receive both honors is quite a testimony to exciting and quality marketing things that we are doing to promote the region. We look forward to bringing even more visitors in the future because of our efforts.”
The DMANC banquet was held recently in Winston-Salem where the organizations were both recognized during the banquet. Roberts and Assistant Director of Marketing Jessica Johnson attended the banquet as representatives for the Mount Airy TDA and Tourism Partnership of Surry County.
The Mayberry to Merlot newsletter is distributed to more than 35,000 recipients on a monthly basis including tourism-related businesses in Mount Airy and Surry County. Each month the newsletter promotes upcoming events, packages and different themes.
The Mount Airy TDA Chairman is Lenise Lynch of the Mount Airy Hampton Inn and other board members are Vice Chairman Ben Webb of Old North State Winery; Treasurer Trudy Willard of Holiday Inn Express; Secretary Magen Atkinson of Cross Creek Country Club, City Commissioner Shirley Brinkley; Jatin Patel of Comfort Inn and Knights Inn, Chad Tidd of Chick-fil-A and Pam Stone representing the city of Mount Airy.
The partnership’s Ohio campaign was launched in spring 2014 and continued through the summer. It focused on targeting Ohio visitors who were already coming through to our area when traveling to beaches down I-77.
“We get many of these that come through and we have been focusing on them to come back and or stay longer as many of them stay overnight on the way to the beach and on the way back from the beach,” said Roberts.
The partnership’s chairman is Burke Robertson who is the Surry County representative. Board members are Vice Chair Leslie Schlender, Elkin representative; Treasurer Lenise Lynch, Mount Airy representative; Scott Needham, Pilot Mountain representative and Ed Shelton, Dobson representative.
The award entries were submitted by tourism departments, chamber of commerce’s and visitor’s bureaus across North Carolina with all sizes of budgets. The judges were national tourism professionals including advertising agency representatives and marketing specialists. Roberts submitted the awards on behalf of the Mount Airy Tourism Development Authority and Tourism Partnership of Surry County.
David Broyles may be reached at 336-415-4739 and on Twitter@MtAiryNewsDave.
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