FREDERICK, Md., Dec. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Maryland Tourism Coalition has awarded Postern Owner and Creative Director, Emily Dorr, the 2021 Tourism Advocate Award for her hard work, dedication, and commitment to Maryland's tourism industry.
As a small-business owner, Dorr has a longstanding history of partnering with destination marketing organizations, small businesses, hospitality companies, restaurants, and other tourism and travel entities. Whether overseeing the creation of visitor guides, lending consultative marketing expertise to businesses, or guiding the direction of destination-based marketing campaigns, she has always advocated for the success of the state's tourism industry.
"Emily Dorr and the Postern team have been loyal partners to our organization for many years," said Michael Henningsen, Executive Vice President of Plamondon Hospitality Partners and President of the Maryland Hotel Lodging Association. "Throughout our successes, and at times when our industry has faced adversity, we've been able to look to Postern for guidance and support."
When the turmoil of COVID-19 placed many of those long-standing partners at risk due to the various travel restrictions and shutdowns, Dorr and her team dove headfirst into creating solutions that would support tourism directly and indirectly for the benefit of their clients and the state of Maryland in its entirety.
"It would have been easy for Emily to take the posture that so many other small businesses owners were forced to endure throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: hunkered down and simply focusing on self-preservation," said Ruth Toomey, Executive Director, Maryland Tourism Coalition. "It was certainly the safest approach; however, she has always been committed to ensuring the success of her clients, even when it's fraught with challenges."
While simultaneously working to sustain her own small business, Dorr poured the energy of her business into adapting strategic marketing efforts for its clients, such as reenvisioning tourism publications in digital formats, creating digital advertising campaigns to promote destination-based travel in adherence with COVID-19 restrictions, hosting free supportive collaboration groups for clients and non-clients alike to ideate best practices in such challenging times, designing an array of signage to reinforce safety and cleaning procedures in hotels, building partnerships between for-profit and nonprofit organizations to meet basic community needs, and employed messaging and design expertise to support hiring and retention efforts in a time when it was difficult to keep employees in tourism and hospitality-based occupations.
While these are a handful of the services Dorr directed throughout the tumultuous days of the last 12 to 18 months, the most notable step in advocacy for tourism was the start of a new business entirely.
Dorr held tightly to her belief that the primary objective of her business is to support our community, which resulted in the formation of Postern Publishing–the new publishing arm of her longstanding marketing agency. This business would house the next endeavor, Maryland Road Trips–an online tool serving as the go-to resource of travel information and inspiration for those participating in the surge of domestic car travel. The vision of this platform was to spotlight routes, destinations, businesses, and attractions at a time when in-state residents and nearby out-of-state tourists were desperate for outlets to safely scratch their travel itch.
Now, through captivating experiences written by a variety of contributors and specially curated road trip itineraries, the Maryland Road Trips website and social media accounts have successfully promoted 132 Maryland cities and towns as well as over 500 businesses. This original content generates tens of thousands of unique pageviews every month and continues to build on its original vision of promoting tourism and hospitality across all regions of Maryland.
"This is truly an honor," said Dorr, "especially after the year all businesses have had. Postern did not escape being affected by COVID. However, I wish the award was called the Advocates Award (plural) because I must give credit to my team. Without them, none of the work or results we produced for our business partners or the state of Maryland would be possible."
According to the Maryland Tourism Coalition, the Tourism Advocate Award is given to "someone who has heightened the awareness of the tourism industry and its impact on the economy," and "has successfully...made a commitment to education in state, local or county government." Dorr has consistently gone above and beyond to advocate for her clients and Maryland's tourism industry as a whole, making her the well-deserved honoree.
Postern is a full-service marketing and advertising agency located in downtown Frederick, MD. Their service offerings include strategic marketing and advertising planning, print and digital graphic design, copywriting and public relations, social media management, website design, and search engine optimization.
Media Contact
Wallis Shamieh, Postern, 2405789909, [email protected]
SOURCE Postern
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