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London,
UK & Atlanta, GA – November 2019 / Newsmaker Alert / Alabama
Tourism, Travel South USA
and the Luckie
Agency were awarded the “Best Regional Destination Campaign” by International
Travel & Tourism Awards for the U.S.
Civil Rights Trail. Accepting the award at a gala awards dinner was
Lee Sentell, Director of the Alabama Tourism Department, and Liz Bittner,
President & CEO of Travel South USA.
The
U.S. Civil Rights Trail, which covers 14 states and the District of Columbia,
is the first U.S. regional marketing effort ever to win this honor. The
award was presented on Tuesday, November 5, 2019, in London, coinciding
with World Travel Market, one of the tourism largest and most prestigious
international trade shows.
The
award category included finalists from all over the world, such as travel
and tourism entities representing Barcelona, Spain, Uttar Pradesh, India,
the Canary Islands, and North Brabant, Netherlands.
“Having
the U.S. Civil Rights Trail recognized on a global stage is truly an honor,
and most importantly, it helps to promote the sites on the trail to international
travelers,” shared Lee Sentell as he accepted the award. This initiative
began as a project led by the Alabama Tourism Department in partnership
with Georgia State University to identify and nominate Civil Rights landmarks
as potential UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Over the past two years, the
U.S. Civil Rights Trail Marketing Alliance, LLC has expanded the trail
and currently markets the 150+ churches, courthouses, schools, museums
and other landmarks designated on the US Civil Rights Trail.
The
International Travel & Tourism Award follows national
recognition by the U.S Travel Association’s Mercury Marketing Award,
which was awarded in August 2019.
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![Take a virtual tour of civil rights sites [click here]](uscrt-082219-hero.jpg "Take a virtual tour of civil rights sites [click here]")
Take
a virtual tour of civil rights sites
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About
the U.S. Civil Rights Trail
The
U.S. Civil Rights Trail is a collection of churches, courthouses, schools,
museums and other landmarks primarily in the Southern states where activists
challenged segregation in the 1950s and 1960s to advance social justice.
Famous sites such as the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama; Little
Rock Central High School in Arkansas; the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth’s
where sitins began; the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel
in Memphis, Tennessee; and Dr. King’s birthplace in Atlanta, to name a
few. The people, locations and destinations included in the Civil Rights
Trail provide a way for families, travelers, and educators to experience
history firsthand and tell the story of how “what happened here changed
the world.” For details about dozens of significant sites and to see interviews
with civil rights foot soldiers, visit CivilRightsTrail.com.
About
the U.S. Civil Rights Trail Marketing Alliance
A
project which began in 2015 to nominate a few Civil Rights landmarks as
potential UNESCO World Heritage Sites uncovered more than 100 NPS, National
Historic Landmarks, and other highly qualified and recommended sites for
consideration to UNESCO. By March of 2017, it was obvious, that while this
working group had the first ever inventory of important civil rights locations,
it was not necessarily a list that was inclusive of all of the destinations
that could be a part of an important tourism campaign to focus on sharing
the story of freedom. And thus the concept of creating a US Civil Rights
Trail was born. Thanks to the leadership of Lee Sentell, Director, Alabama
Tourism, fourteen (14) states offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia
joined together to organize marketing and advertising programming, and
created the U.S. Civil Rights Trail Marketing Alliance, LLC., incorporated
in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2017. The website|–|CivilRightsTrail.com|–|media,
and associated marketing outreach is promoted through a licensing agreement
with the state of Alabama. Travel South USA, a non-profit marketing organization,
serves as the no-fee business office for the Alliance, and the agency of
record for the Alliance is Luckie & Company with offices in Birmingham,
Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia.
About
Travel South USA
Travel
South USA is America’s oldest and largest regional travel promotion organization,
formed in 1965 by a resolution presented at the Southern Governor’s Conference.
The long-standing regional collaboration of the state tourism offices of
Alabama,
Arkansas,
Georgia,
Kentucky,
Louisiana,
Mississippi,
Missouri,
North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee,
Virginia
and West Virginia provides a foundation
to positively position tourism as a vital and dynamic element in the region’s
economic development. Tourism ranks throughout the region as one of the
top three industries, behind manufacturing and agriculture, and is responsible
for $133 billion in spending by visitors, generating 1.4 million direct
jobs, $30 billion in worker paychecks, and almost $16 billion in state
and local taxes. Visit TravelSouthUSA.com
for consumer information and travel industry information, TravelSouthUSA.org.
For
more information, contact:
Liz
Bittner
U.S.
Civil Rights Trail Marketing Alliance, LLC
404-231-1790
Media/Press |
