Destination Mansfield – Richland County staff members attended the Ohio Conference on Travel in Sandusky, Ohio September 25-28, 2018. They joined approximately 300 other travel industry leaders from across the state to discuss travel trends and opportunities, as well as to hear from national experts. The local team also walked away with statewide recognition for their marketing efforts.
During the educational conference, Destination Mansfield – Richland County received a first-place marketing award called a RUBY in the statewide RUBY Awards competition. The recognition was for their Shawshank Trail Digital Marketing Campaign, which tells the first-hand story of a visiting couple experiencing the Shawshank Trail, featuring 15 filming sites from the movie The Shawshank Redemption. View the story, called “A Path Worth Remembering”, by visiting www.ShawshankTrail.com.
“We are pleased to have this marketing campaign recognized in this state-wide tourism competition”, said Lee Tasseff, President. “The best part is the campaign has been highly successful which is always the greater goal. The award is icing on the cake.”
To date the digital marketing campaign has gained over 6 million impressions and 7,100 clicks to the story by people in Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and other states. In addition, Destination Mansfield’s digital marketing campaign focused on BibleWalk, Ohio’s only life-size wax museum, was a finalist is this category. The Little Buckeye Children’s Museum was also awarded with four citations of excellence and two coveted RUBY awards at the conference.
The Ohio Travel Association RUBY Awards recognize excellence in Ohio’s travel industry for efforts in advertising, marketing and public relations. RUBY Award stands for Recognizing Uncommon Brilliance Yearly (RUBY) Award and honors those who have found the most innovative ways to market their destination, experiences or services. Competition was strong this year with more than 204 entries in print-based, web-based and marketing campaign, advertisement and video categories. The awards are sponsored by Ohio Magazine.
The Ohio Travel Association is the non-profit association representing attractions, destination marketing organizations, hotels, museums, suppliers, restaurants, campgrounds and other businesses who make up Ohio’s $43 billion travel industry. For more information about the Ohio Travel Association and how to get involved with others in the travel industry, visit OhioTravel.org.
Destination Mansfield – Richland County brings dollars into local economy
An “award-winning” Economic Development Corporation, Destination Mansfield-Richland County generates money for our local economy (through tourism) and raises the profile of Mansfield/Richland County around Ohio, across the nation and parts of the world.
Tourism, the 4th largest employer in Richland County, supports 4,736 jobs with a payroll of $86 million, while generating spending of $338.5 million and Local Taxes of $8.6 million.
A local employer of four full-time and two part-time staff, Destination Mansfield-Richland County uses the talents of volunteers and interns to accomplish its mission.