Muskogee Chamber of Commerce and Tourism was the only organization to win three awards at the 2009 banquet for the Governor's Conference on Tourism which was held in Tulsa on Oct. 19 to 20.

Muskogee earned The Merit Award for Best Brochure/Publication Single Sheet for the Motorcycle Ride Guide, the Redbud Award for Best Web site, and the Merit Award for Outstanding Tourism Organization of the Year. The Redbud Awards represent the highest honor given in the Oklahoma tourism industry.

One of the strengths of the Muskogee Chamber of Commerce and Tourism is our ability to know how to pool our resources. Partnering is more important than ever in the economic climate that we are competing in today. We are facing challenging times in the tourism industry, and yet we have been able to stand above the rest because we know that we can’t do it without teamwork. These awards are a reflection of the hard work that our Chamber staff and many volunteers have devoted to tourism.

The Merit Award for Best Brochure for the Motorcycle Ride Guide is a tribute to our focus on niche marketing. The purpose of the brochure is to encourage motorcyclists to enjoy the beautiful back roads of eastern Oklahoma and stay overnight in Muskogee. We know that motorcycle enthusiasts have expendable income and are looking for an adventure. We already have the tourism product, curvy paved roads and beautiful scenery. Max Boydstun of Citizen’s Security Bank, the former chair of the Tourism Committee, and his wife Darla mapped out five scenic drives in our area. Jonita Mullins, Downtown Muskogee Inc., helped with the verbal imagery, and a team of local bikers helped make the brochure fun and interesting. The teamwork resulted in an award winning brochure with that special “biker humor.”

The Redbud Award for Best Web site just shows the importance of attracting visitors, educating local citizens, informing Chamber members and luring potential businesses. The objective is to focus first on visibility, making information easy to find, and second, providing enough specifics to make it easy to plan a trip to the area. Contracting with Destination Development to help us develop the site, the Chamber now has a designated ‘power user,’ an individual who has the job of monitoring the Web site and is trained to update it, and we can make all changes and updates in house, instantly resulting in more efficient and cost effective marketing. The content had to be arranged in a way that a visitor thinks, not just endless lists of everything in the city. People are looking for experiences – things to do – that they can’t do closer to home. You can check out Muskogee Chamber’s award winning Web site at www.muskogeechamber.org.

The Merit Award for Tourism Organization of the Year is quite an honor. The Muskogee Chamber has had the contract with the City of Muskogee to administer the Hotel Motel taxes for tourism for three years. In this time, we have achieved many accomplishments, including the new Web site, the entrance sign, and developing a visitor tracking system, with the ultimate goal of making Muskogee a visitor friendly community. The competition is tough. The winner of the Redbud Award in this category was the Oklahoma City CVB. They have a budget of $4.2 million and a staff of 17. The hotel/motel taxes in Muskogee are 3 percent, resulting in a budget of around $250,000 a year.

The Muskogee Chamber staff consists of dedicated, trained professionals who really love and believe in what they do to promote Muskogee tourism and Muskogee businesses. Kudos and hats off go especially to the chamber’s Vice President of Tourism Treasure McKenzie and Marketing/Tourism Assistant and our power user Alisha Tanksley.

Muskogee deserves to be recognized for being the wonderful place to travel and live that is. Keep up the good work of telling our story. Job well done!