Award of Excellence

The Cocke County Partnership’s Tourism Director Linda Lewanski accepted Middle East Tennessee Tourism’s prestigious Award of Excellence for Advertising and Promotion last week.

The Tourism Excellence Awards were created to recognize outstanding programs that promote travel to and within the Middle East Tennessee region.

The Partnership’s entry was the regional billboard campaign between Cocke County and Gatlinburg. This “groundbreaking” partnership implemented an advertising program by purchasing billboards along the 1-40 and 1-81 corridors and urging travelers to use Newport’s 435 exit as the “Best Route to Gatlinburg.” The effort has resulted in an increase in traffic of almost 35 percent at that exit.

“Joint efforts like the billboard program between Cocke County & Gatlinburg are great way to make marketing dollars go further,” said METTC Executive Director April Montgomery. “Visitors to the Smoky Mountains don’t see different communities but one, beautiful area to explore. I am so proud of Linda and this award and I congratulate her.”


“With a small budget, you have to get creative” said Cocke County Partnership’s Tourism Director Linda Lewanski. “The Tourism department collaborated with the Gatlinburg Department of Tourism in an effort to promote Cocke County’s Interstate 40 - Exit 435 as the “Best Route to Gatlinburg”. Leveraging a small amount of marketing dollars, we have been able to benefit from Gatlinburg’s hefty marketing campaign. By offering cultural and heritage based tourism venues, Cocke County has an opportunity to capture some of the tourist dollars being spent by those visitors. AAA is now promoting this exit as well as in fulfillment marketing pieces. I am so pleased to have our efforts recognized by METTC.”

Entries were open to hospitality organizations or entities located in the Middle East Tennessee region and must have been produced or published between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006.

Entries were judged on presentation, quality, efficiency and community or economic impact. Size of staff and operating budget of entity were considered and entries were divided into large hospitality organizations, with annual budget over $1 Million, and small hospitality organizations, with budgets under $1 Million.

Gatlinburg Department of Tourism won in the large market category. Walter Yeldell, Tourism and Public Relation Manager for the Department accepted the award.
“This billboard campaign has proven beneficial to everyone involved,” Yeldell said. “Naturally, it has been good for Cocke County and Gatlinburg. Best of all, the Gatlinburg visitor has found a new and quicker entryway that has less traffic and can shave as much as an hour off the drive time, especially on busy traffic days!”

“In the category of Special Projects, this small hospitality association took a problem and made it into an opportunity,” said WBIR’s John Becker, who emceed the program, held at Magnolia Manor in Loudon County.
“Because of the mass quantity of visitors to the Smoky Mountain Area, state & federal highways can sometimes turn into a parking lot. The project has led to a refreshing break from the traffic congestion found at other gateway exits and resulted in a cooperative effort between two East Tennessee tourism departments,” said Becker while presenting the award to Lewanski. ”Congratulations.”

Cocke County Partnership President Donald Hurst is proud of the recognition.
“It is always good to be recognized for your efforts,” Hurst said. “The Partnership continually looks for opportunities to work regionally. We make it our mission to implement projects intended to spur economic development in our county and our region. I think this effort is a good example of that. With a traffic increase of almost 35 percent at exit 435, we can count this as a very successful project. I appreciate METTC’s recognition of our work and our thanks go to our City and County officials for their support of our programs.”

County Mayor Iliff McMahan, Jr. is also proud of the department’s achievements.
“Having served as a member and chair of Middle East Tennessee Tourism Council, I know how important this council take its mission to promote our beautiful natural resources and our cultural heritage traditions,” McMahan said.” I congratulate our Tourism Director Linda Lewanski on this prestigious award and thank her and the Council for all the hard work that went into making this award possible.
“This award is proof that dreams can be achieved, “he added.” And shows what a council of fine folks can do when they put their heads together. If not for the vision of Linda, our Tourism Council and the fine folks in Gatlinburg, this program would never have happened.
“Again, congratulations.”

City of Newport Mayor Connie Ball added his congratulations.
“On behalf of the City of Newport I congratulate the Tourism department for receiving this outstanding award,” Ball said. ”The Cocke County Partnership is always working to make or community a better place to live. It is very important that all citizens and groups join forces with each other as a team to better promote our great resources.
“I greatly appreciate the efforts of the Tourism Council and Tourism Director Linda Lewanski. ”Hard work, organization and dedication always pay off in the end,” he added.