The Ohio Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (OACVB) held its first post-COVID Annual Educational Conference January 25-26 in Columbus. Keynote speaker for the Conference was Jack Johnson, Chief Advocacy Officer of Destinations International. 

The Annual STAR Awards Luncheon was also held during the conference. At the luncheon, STAR Awards were presented for destination marketing and tourism development efforts in nine different categories. 

The Visitors Bureau of Highland County earned recognition in two categories within their budget tier during the STAR Awards Luncheon. The organization’s website, redesigned in 2022, earned first place honors in the Website category. The organization earned Runner Up honors in the Commercial or Video category for their video titled, Outdoors in Highland County.

The OACVB STAR Awards (“State Tourism Achievement Recognition”) honor outstanding efforts by Ohio Convention and Visitor Bureaus in their work to market and promote their area destinations and to generate overall awareness of the tourism industry.  Recipients were honored for their innovation, creativity, effectiveness and impact in travel and tourism marketing and advertising.

“One of our organization’s major goals for 2022 was to completely redesign the Visitors Bureau of Highland County’s website,” said Jamie Wheeler, Executive Director of the Visitors Bureau of Highland County. “We hope the website will become a one-stop shop for residents and visitors to know what is available for them to shop, eat, play and explore Highland County. Earning this award from OACVB was icing on the cake for this project.”

Convention and Visitors Bureaus are best described as destination marketing organizations and are responsible for promoting travel and tourism product awareness to visitors and residents. Many outstanding marketing projects were submitted for the annual awards competition. Being recognized for a job well-done in the promotion of travel and tourism throughout the state of Ohio is a highly valued achievement.