Currituck County’s Department of Travel & Tourism has been recognized by the Destination Marketing Association of North Carolina, receiving four awards for various marketing projects and campaigns.

The Destination Marketing Achievement Awards honor and showcase innovative, best practices, creativity and outstanding efforts in tourism marketing.

Currituck County’s Tourism Department was awarded the following:

First place – Best Print Advertising Leisure for a series of ads published in magazines
First place – Best Local Constituents Communications/Newsletters, for the department’s electronic newsletter to tourism businesses
Second place – Best Visitor’s Guide, for the 2008 Currituck Outer Banks Visitor’s Guide
Second place (tied with the city of Charlotte) – Best Niche Marketing, for the department’s 2008 Wedding & Event Planner
The awards were presented in the “large budget” category, meaning that the Currituck bureau competed against other destinations such as Asheville, Raleigh, and Charlotte.

The department was presented the awards at the association’s annual awards banquet, held June 2, 2008 in Asheville. There were over 150 award entries from tourism departments/visitors bureaus across North Carolina. The judges were tourism professionals from all over the country, including advertising agency representatives and marketing specialists. Of the approximately 30 awards given, Currituck County received four awards.

Tourism staff members who were involved in the projects were:

 Diane Sawyer, Director
 Veronica Brown, Marketing Coordinator
 Irina Cocett, Public Relations Coordinator
 Deb Embrey, Electronic Media Coordinator

 Currituck County Tourism staff members (pictured l-r) Diane Sawyer, Veronica Brown, Irina Coccetti, and Debra Embrey received four top awards from the Destination Marketing Association of North Carolina.