Four winners announced at annual Maryland Tourism and Travel Summit
Annapolis, MD – The 2021 Maryland Tourism Awards were presented at the 40th Annual Maryland Tourism & Travel Summit in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The awards, given by the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism Development (OTD) and the Maryland Tourism Development Board (MTDB), recognize excellence and major contributions in expanding the market of Maryland tourism products, maximizing opportunities to generate overnight stays, leveraging partnerships, and showcasing Maryland as an exciting, must-see tourism destination.
Tom Riford, Maryland Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary of Tourism, Film, Arts, Marketing and Communications; Liz Fitzsimmons, Managing Director of Maryland Department of Commerce’s Division of Tourism and Film, and Captain Judy Bixler, Oxford-Bellevue Ferry and Maryland Tourism Development Board Chair, presented the awards during a luncheon at the conference.
“Tourism is a very important Maryland industry, and it provides significant economic impact for our state,” said Assistant Secretary Riford. “I am honored to help present the 2021 Maryland Tourism Awards, which recognize the outstanding accomplishments of our tourism partners who support the collective mission of increasing visitor spending in Maryland.”
“The Maryland Tourism Awards showcase the influential people, programs and organizations that have made an economic impact on our state by encouraging visitors to stay longer and spend more here,” said Fitzsimmons.
The award categories and winners are:
Market Expansion Award: Awarded to Garrett County Chamber of Commerce for successfully producing a comprehensive winter advertising campaign to expand an existing demographic and geographic market.
- Winter 20/21 Advertising Campaign is a marketing campaign for the perfect winter getaway in Garrett County and Deep Creek Lake. Focusing on open space, the abundance of outdoor activities and safety protocols as a result of the pandemic, the campaign included an increase in television flights, geofencing digital ads and specific digital ads running in target markets resulting in increases of new website traffic, lodging collections, and overall tourism sales tax revenues recording their best winter ever.
Maximizing Opportunities Award: The recipient of this award is recognized for successfully taking advantage of an existing trend to generate overnight stays, and presented to the Avalon Foundation Stoltz Pavilion.
- The Avalon Foundation Stoltz Pavilion is a brand new, outdoor live music & performance venue with socially distanced pods. Opening several weeks after outdoor gatherings of up to 250 people were permitted again in 2020, it enabled the Avalon Foundation to be among the first presenters in the U.S. to resume live performances at a sustainable scale. It has held 90 performances to date.
Transactional Opportunities Award: Visit Howard County received this award for successfully creating a robust social media campaign and tourism promotions to increase revenue while hosting the 2021 Major League Quidditch Championship .
- 2021 Major League Quidditch Championship is a multi-day sporting event hosted and supported by Visit Howard County for the first time. The social media campaign reached more than 47,200 accounts with 65,000 video views, and restaurant promotions saw sales increase by more than $10,000. The efforts by the county and partners were integral in outperforming the economic impact of the 2018 Mid-Atlantic Championship by 10 percent.
Leveraging Partnerships Award: This award was presented to Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Montgomery counties for the C&O Canal Experience and successfully identifying and packaging complementary assets in the C&O Canal region in order to drive revenue with overnight stays.
- C&O Canal Experience provides a unified marketing strategy, branding and communications plan that connects partners and assets found across the C&O Canal region. This marketing partnership resulted in new tourism experiences such as the C&O Canal Libations Trail, more than 30 media articles, several hosted media visits including a virtual group media FAM, and an increase in visitation moving the C&O Canal National Historical Park to the 8th most visited national park in the USA during 2020 (up from #12).
The Maryland Tourism Awards are open to all individuals, private businesses, governmental agencies and non-profit organizations offering a tourism product or service in Maryland. A panel of judges representing Maryland’s tourism community reviews each nomination.
About Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism
The Maryland Office of Tourism is an agency within the Maryland Department of Commerce. Visitors to the state spent $11.6 billion on travel-related expenses in 2020. The Maryland tourism industry also generated $1.7 billion in state and local taxes, essentially saving each Maryland household $775 in annual taxes, and directly supported Marylanders with 104,328 jobs. For more information, go to www.visitmaryland.org.
