The Illinois Governor’s Conference on Travel & Tourism recently honored the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau with a Cooperative Partnership award for The Last 100 Miles of Route 66 Postcard Mural Trail.
More about the honor from The Alton Telegraph newspaper:
Working with 12 different Route 66 communities to create a vivid Route 66 Postcard Mural Trail among other interactive Route 66 products was part of The Last 100 Miles of Route 66 initiative for the Bureau. The nomination for this award stated: “It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes 12 different communities working hand-in-hand with the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau to create new tourism products including murals, monuments and interactive sites along the Last 100 Miles of Route 66 in Illinois.”
The bureau also was honored for best website, Riverandroutes.com, which plays up the link to the Great River Road along the Mississippi River and Route 66.
The bureau’s Eagle Season campaign also was lauded as the best PR marketing campaign. That one celebrates the migratory return of bald eagles along the river valley. Route 66 link: Many people gather at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which formerly carried the highway, to watch the eagles in flight.
The Illinois Excellence in Tourism Awards were presented at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Travel and tourism professionals across the nation judged submissions in nine categories.
(Design of the Edwardsville mural in The Last 100 Miles of Route 66 Postcard Mural Trail in Illinois)