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Kansas Tourism recently was presented two awards from the 31st Annual North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) award competition. The “Kansas Brand Anthem Commercial” took silver in the Destination Video Category, and the “To The Story Campaign” took bronze in the Creative Marketing Campaign Category.

“Kansas Tourism continues to raise the bar in how we market our state to visitors,” said Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland. “These high-quality, inspirational videos help us share our history, our people and our incredible places to visit across the state, showing the world that Kansas is the best place to do business, to explore and to call home.”

The “Kansas Brand Anthem Commercial” is an inspirational 30-second broadcast video that highlights the real Kansas experience travelers can expect as they adventure across the state. The commercial ran in spring 2022 in-state and in several surrounding states, reaching up to 158 million people. Visitor traffic to www.TravelKS.com also increased during the lifetime of the commercial campaign with a 37.5 percent increase in pageviews.

The “To The Stories Campaign” is a series of four- to five-minute videos that take an inside look at the unique faces and places of Kansas. Stories in the series include Distilleries, Cosmosphere, Mountain Biking, A Cowboy State, The Smoke Show, Secret Kansas, Kansas Racing and Capturing Kansas: The Gordon Parks Legacy. This well received campaign has generated to date over 68,000 pageviews on www.TravelKS.com and has potentially been seen by over 4.5 million individuals.

In addition to the two Kansas Tourism awards, Visit Topeka took home gold for “Topeka Dino Days” in the Creative Marketing Campaign Category.

“Seeing Kansas take three of the nine awards given to Destination Marketing Organizations speaks volumes to the type of content being produced to encourage travel to and throughout our state,” said Kansas Tourism Director Bridgette Jobe. “Kansas continues to grow in recognition as an awe-inspiring visitor destination, and these awards are prime examples of the quality marketing we are accomplishing.”  

The NATJA awards are designed to exemplify the best of the best in travel journalism and destination marketing from organizations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and internationally. Judges for the competition include award-winning newspaper and magazine editors, as well as educators across the journalism disciplines.

A complete list of awardees can be found at https://www.natja.org/awards/annual-competition/31st-annual-natja-awards-competition-winners/.

About the Kansas Tourism Division

The mission of the Kansas Tourism Division is to inspire travel to and throughout Kansas to maximize the positive impacts that tourism has on our state and local communities. Kansas Tourism is a division of the Kansas Department of Commerce and works hand in hand with other Commerce community programs to elevate and promote Kansas as a tourist destination.

Kansas Tourism oversees all tourism marketing and PR for the state, produces travel publications and advertising, manages state Travel Information Centers, manages both the Kansas By-ways program and the Kansas Agritourism program, approves tourist signage applications, produces the KANSAS! Magazine, and provides financial and educational support to the tourism industry in Kansas through grants, education and support.

About the Kansas Department of Commerce

As the state’s lead economic development agency, the Kansas Department of Commerce strives to empower individuals, businesses and communities to achieve prosperity in Kansas. Commerce accomplishes its mission by developing relationships with corporations, site location consultants and stakeholders in Kansas, the nation and world. Our strong partnerships allow us to help create an environment for existing Kansas businesses to grow and foster an innovative, competitive landscape for new businesses.

Through Commerce’s project successes, Kansas was awarded Area Development Magazine’s prestigious Gold Shovel award in 2021 and 2022, and was awarded the 2021 and 2022 Governor’s Cup by Site Selection Magazine.