{"id":133494,"date":"2023-10-17T17:59:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T22:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=133494"},"modified":"2023-10-17T17:59:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T22:59:43","slug":"visit-oxford-wins-top-destination-honors-by-mississippi-tourism-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/visit-oxford-wins-top-destination-honors-by-mississippi-tourism-association\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit Oxford Wins Top Destination Honors by Mississippi Tourism Association"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Visit Oxford MS<\/strong> received statewide recognition at The Mississippi Tourism Association (MTA)<\/strong>\u2019s annual tourism awards program held during Governor\u2019s Conference on Tourism at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian, Mississippi, on October 4\u20136, 2023. Celebrating the destination\u2019s impact on the state\u2019s tourism industry, the awards presented to Visit Oxford MS were\u00a0Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) of the Year<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Large Festival of the Year<\/strong>\u00a0for the annual Double Decker Arts Festival<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are overjoyed to earn these awards, which are a true testament to the dedication of our entire team and the incredible destination we serve,\u201d said Kinney Ferris<\/strong>, executive director of Visit Oxford MS. \u201cWhen you\u2019re passionate about what you do, it pays off. We\u2019re proud to represent such an amazing town with even more amazing people in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past year, Oxford has established itself as a competitive destination in the tourism sector as well as a thriving community that attracts year-round visitors. Based on the state of Mississippi\u2019s visitor spending numbers, total visitor spending in Oxford was estimated to increase by approximately 10% and taxes attributed to visitor spending were up by 21%. The destination also saw an increase in hotel\/motel tax collections of 28%\u2014the highest in collection history, including pre-COVID numbers. The 2023 Double Decker Arts Festival alone had an estimated economic impact on the local community of a staggering $13.8 million as visitors traveled from over 25 states for the weekend in Oxford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit Oxford MS\u2019 team of four full-time employees and their leadership in the region plays a vital role in the organization\u2019s demonstrated success. Nadia Thornton<\/strong>, the organization\u2019s sales and marketing director, recently completed the three-year program of Southeast Tourism Society Marketing College\u00ae and earned Tourism Marketing Professional (TMP) certification. Furthermore, Oxford\u2019s very own Senator Nicole Atkins Boyd<\/strong> was awarded the Governmental Tourism Leadership Award during MTA\u2019s annual event. A champion of her hometown of Oxford and of Mississippi as a whole, Boyd was recognized for her continued dedication to the growth of tourism and economic development across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Mississippi tourism industry thrives with dedicated individuals who share a heartfelt commitment to enhancing their communities and our state as desirable destinations to visit, reside, and thrive. We commend their exceptional contributions to our state\u2019s fourth-largest industry and appreciate their unwavering support for the Mississippi Tourism Association\u2019s mission, which unites the entire tourism sector through advocacy, education, and promotion. We extend our warmest congratulations to all our award recipients for their remarkable achievements and offer our best wishes for their ongoing success,\u201d said Christy Burns<\/strong>, the 2023\u20132024 president of MTA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Visit Oxford MS received statewide recognition at The Mississippi Tourism Association (MTA)\u2019s annual tourism awards program held during<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":133496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[27028,6424],"class_list":["post-133494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-mississippi-tourism-asociation","tag-visit-oxford"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Visit-Oxford-DD-bus-feat.jpg?fit=500%2C328&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}