CNHI
TIFTON —
The North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) has announced that local woman Christine Tibbetts was selected for the Silver writing award in the 2012 Annual NATJA Competition in the category for newspapers under 250,000 circulation.
This awards competition, now in its 21st year, honors the “best of the best” in travel writing, photography and promotion covering all aspects of the travel industry worldwide.
Winning publications in other categories include National Geographic Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Washington Post, National Geographic, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine and numerous Canadian newspapers.
Tibbetts was selected for her travel feature “Experience New York with Immigrant Eyes” published in The Tifton Gazette.
NATJA Awards recognize excellence in travel writing, photojournalism, social media, multimedia platforms, advertising, marketing and public relations for the travel and tourism industry. This year, NATJA received more than 500 submissions from all over the world.
“This year’s entries were outstanding, both in quality of the journalism, excellence and range of coverage,” said Helen Hernandez, CEO of the organization. “The creativity is reflective of the vibrancy of the travel journalists’ community and destination marketing organizations. The winners transported the reader through evocative storytelling and spell-binding photography.”
Tibbetts also co-hosts “Travel Itch Radio,” a weekly interview travel show on Blog Talk Radio, and serves as destinations editor and blogger for TravelingMom.com, a consortium of 51 traveling mothers with extensive followers on a weekly Twitter family travel conversation and 53,000 unique visitors to the web page.
In addition to regular travel features in The Tifton Gazette, she publishes travel destination features through CNHI News Service, reaching community newspapers across the country.
A graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, Tibbetts has lived in Tifton for 34 years.
NATJA is the second largest travel media association in North America. Members include travel media professionals, convention and visitor bureaus, social media, hotels and attractions, and other travel marketing agencies.
Members are provided with professional development workshops, peer-to-peer evaluation, web tools and networking opportunities. NATJA also publishes TravelWorld International Magazine (www.travelworldmagazine.com).
For more information about NATJA or a complete list of 2012 award winners, visit www.natja.org.
Editor's note: The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are still closed because of Hurricane Sandy.
