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The RedBud Awards represent the highest honor given in the Oklahoma tourism industry.
Oklahoma City, OK – June 29, 2021 - The Oklahoma Travel Industry Association (OTIA) held its annual RedBud Awards at the Edmond Conference Center on June 29, 2021. Open to all Oklahoma tourism entities, the RedBud Awards represent the highest honor given in the Oklahoma tourism industry. This year, the RedBud Awards was produced in partnership with Edmond Electric. The RedBud Awards host partners are the Edmond Conference Center and Visit Edmond.
Emceed by Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell and Jenifer Reynolds, 37 awards were given in 20 categories. The awards recognize Oklahoma's top tourism attractions, events, programs and organizations for outstanding efforts to serve and promote Oklahoma’s tourism industry. Three new categories were added to this year’s Redbud Awards to recognize the efforts of organizations that successfully navigated the 2020 pandemic using creative marketing efforts. The three new categories are Best Virtual Event, Best Covid Collaboration and Best Pandemic Related Campaign.
Competition entries must have been produced, published, broadcast or held between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. All entries were evaluated by a slate of tourism professionals on specific criteria including customer service and experience, marketing effectiveness, media relations, variety of audiences reached, value and overall creativity.
The winners include:
Outstanding Agritourism Attraction
Redbud: Kozel Family Farms – Sunshine Shelly’s Pumpkin Patch & Nightmare Harvest
Merit: Visit Enid - Red Bird Farm
Best Social Media
Redbud: Armstrong Auditorium – Rediscover Joy
Merit: Visit Norman – Out & About in Norman
Best Brochure or Publication - ($10,000 or Less Budget)
Redbud: Ponca City Tourism Bureau – Ponca City Visitor’s Guide
Best Brochure or Publication - ($10,000 or More Budget)
Redbud: Great Plains Country Association – A Breath of Fresh Air
Merit: Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma – Choctaw Country Spring-Summer 2020
Best Overall Marketing Campaign – (Large Budget Organization)
Redbud: Oklahoma City Convention & Visitor’s Bureau – The Modern Frontier Campaign
Merit: Visit Stillwater – Visit Stillwater Campaign
Best Overall Marketing Campaign – (Small Budget Organization)
Redbud: Chickasaw Economic Development Council – Hometown Christmas
Merit: Armstrong Auditorium – Rediscover Joy
Best Website – (Large Budget)
Redbud: Visit Stillwater
Merit: Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum
Best Website – (Small Budget)
Redbud: Osage County Tourism
Merit: This Machine Tulsa Bike Share
Best Partnership
RedBud: Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum/ OKC Thunder Partnership
Merit: Visit Enid – Holidays On Ice
Outstanding Media Coverage
Redbud: Chickasha Economic Development Council – Chickasha Leg Lamp
Merit: Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau – Best Place to Travel in 2020 by Travel+Leisure
Outstanding Attraction
Redbud: Osage County Tourism
Merit: Ponca City Tourism Bureau – B&B Sun’n Fun Recreation
Outstanding New Attraction
RedBud: This Machine Tulsa Bike Share
Merit: Chickasha Economic Development Council – Chickasha Leg Lamp
Outstanding Temporary Exhibit
RedBud: Edmond Historical Society & Museum – Darci Lynne’s Got Talent Exhibit
Merit: City of Edmond/Edmond Electric – Edmond Electric’s Luminance: An Enchanted Stroll
Outstanding Event
RedBud: City of Yukon – Christmas in the Park
Merit: Durant Area Chamber of Commerce & Durant Main Street- Downtown Durant in December
Outstanding New Event
RedBud: Uncanny Events LLC – Uncanny Comic Expo
Merit: Visit Edmond – Rollin’ Deep 2020 Mural Expo
Best Virtual Event
RedBud: Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum – 20th Annual OKC Memorial Marathon – A Run to Remember
Merit: American Banjo Museum – American Banjo Museum
Best COVID Collaboration
RedBud: Visit Norman – “Wear This” Campaign
Merit: Oklahoma Museums Association – Museum “Open to the Public” Guideline Considerations
Best Pandemic Related Campaign
RedBud: Tour Tahlequah – Tahlequah-Virtually Adventurous in Every Way!
Merit: Visit Stillwater
Tourism Organization of the Year – Small Budget Organization
Redbud: Osage County Tourism
Tourism Organization of the Year – Large Budget Organization
Redbud: Visit Stillwater
Founded in 1987, the Oklahoma Travel Industry Association (OTIA) was formed primarily to provide tourism education and lobby on behalf of the tourism industry as well as support the efforts of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department in its funding of the State's tourism promotion campaign. In 1992, OTIA developed an alliance with the Oklahoma Restaurant Association and Oklahoma Hotel & Lodging Association to provide administrative services and support membership education initiatives statewide.