Tourism Trailblazers

Door County takes home two awards

Destination Door County (DDC) and the Baileys Harbor Community Association (BHCA) were recently honored for the work they’ve done this year to protect public health while supporting business continuity during a global pandemic.

The two groups received their awards from Destinations Wisconsin during the statewide tourism organization’s annual fall tourism conference, held virtually this year on Nov 5.

Destination Door County earned a 2020 Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazer Award in the Outstanding Partnerships–Regional Collaboration category for its collaborative efforts with local government, health care and business leaders on its pandemic response and related public-information campaign. These efforts, orchestrated through the county’s recovery task force, helped Door County to protect public health while supporting business continuity during the traditionally busiest time of the year for tourism.

The Baileys Harbor Community Association was awarded a 2020 Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazer Award in the Outstanding Marketing Campaign under $25,000 category for its Weather or Not campaign. The campaign brought awareness to COVID-19-related issues facing Baileys Harbor during the spring Safer at Home order and used short, fun videos paired with educational talking points to communicate with local residents and visitors.

Destinations Wisconsin gives out annual Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazer Awards to destination-marketing organizations for outstanding marketing and partnership projects that help to advance the state’s tourism industry. This year, awards were given in four categories. 

Jon Jarosh, DDC’s communications and PR director, said these awards reflect a few of many great examples that show how the organizations and people of Door County came together to deal with the pandemic.

Although Destination Door County received the award for Outstanding Partnerships–Regional Collaboration, Jarosh said it belongs to the whole county. He feels the work-together approach of the county’s task force helped the public-information campaign to reach more people and have a greater effect.

“Led by Door County’s emergency management office, the efforts of the task force that came together back in April helped everyone in the county navigate a very turbulent year,” Jarosh said. “The collaboration between county government, public health, health care, tourism and business leaders was critical in helping keep our residents and visitors safe and our economy moving forward, and those efforts continue as the pandemic rages on.”

The BHCA award for its Weather or Not campaign consisted of more than 20 videos that touched on topics such as social distancing, curbside-pickup etiquette, how-to videos and more. Each video also provided a fun weather report because weather is often a point of conversation. The video campaign helped keep Baileys Harbor fans and friends informed and engaged on BHCA social media pages.

Door County is no stranger to Wisconsin Tourism Trailblazer Awards. The county’s tourism industry has earned several of them in previous years for various marketing and communications initiatives.

Destinations Wisconsin represents 40 Wisconsin destination-marketing organizations and initiates cooperative ventures that strengthen Wisconsin’s tourism industry.