At the 28th annual California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC) conference the first week of June, the Yosemite/Mariposa County Tourism Bureau’s tastefully designed vacation planner landed two major awards.

“We’re pretty proud of this accomplishment,” said Director Jeff Hentz.

The tourism bureau’s promotional piece garnered the “People’s Choice for Best of Show” and “Best Visitors Guide-Print” awards.

The “people’s choice” award is particularly satisfying to Hentz. “We were competing with major TV campaigns, radio campaigns and some very nice products,” Hentz said. “And everyone attending the conference votes, so it’s kind of an election by your peers.”

The competition, which included 11 different categories, is aimed at citing excellence in successful, high-quality tourism advertising, marketing and public relations programs. The finalists from each classification make up the pool of selections in the “people’s choice” category, so the tourism bureau’s vacation planner was deemed the best effort in the state by those attending the conference.

The vacation planner was a joint effort between tourism bureau staff and Astone, an advertising and public relations firm with offices from Sacramento to San Diego.

“We went a whole different direction than the typical vacation planner,” Hentz said. “We designed this as more of a destination informational piece, and our research shows that for every planner we send out, those people usually book a trip within one year.”

The first printing of the planner was 75,000, and a reprint of somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 is planned for September, with a few minor updates. Hentz said that more than 10,000 vacation planners have been downloaded from the bureau’s Web site (www.homeofyosemite. com).

“Year after year, we continue to be impressed with the campaigns and programs our statewide industry professionals generate,” said President and CEO Caroline Beteta of CTTC. “These awards reflect California’s pioneering, creative spirit.”

Hentz said the competition was tough. “Congratulations to the winners and finalist whose programs embody this spirit and help raise the bar for travel marketing statewide and beyond. It is this inventiveness and hard work that helps keep California top of mind as one of the leading tourism destinations in the U.S.”