F-M CVB leader and Fargo’s Broadway Square earn North Dakota tourism honors

BISMARCK, N.D. — A Fargo tourism business chief and Fargo’s Broadway Sq. initiative are among the many seven Governor’s Journey and Tourism Awards winners for 2022.

Charley Johnson, president and CEO of the Fargo-Moorhead Conference and Guests Bureau, obtained the Legend Award for Journey and Tourism Trade Management through the North Dakota Journey Trade Convention in Grand Forks.

In the meantime, Broadway Sq., a collaboration between Kilbourne Group, R.D. Offutt Firm and the Fargo Park District, earned the Flint Firestarter Award for a Tourism Growth Challenge. The initiative was lauded for making the nook of Broadway and 2nd Avenue North within the metropolis’s downtown some of the visited spots in North Dakota.

The awards had been introduced Wednesday, April 27.

The Legend Award honors those that have demonstrated “legendary management” within the tourism business statewide and past.

The award quotation stated Johnson “shows ardour and dedication for tourism and the state of North Dakota” shining “a public highlight on the significance of tourism to the financial system inside the neighborhood.”

Within the F-M space, Johnson is a champion for the wants and advantages of a conference middle. He additionally works to make sure that tourism just isn’t forgotten throughout legislative classes.

Broadway Sq. was lauded as “North Dakota’s model of Rockefeller Middle” in its quotation, which went on to say that “practically 350,000 distinctive guests” have loved year-round programming with “a singular Fargo taste.”

Since opening in 2021, Broadway Sq. has featured 259 days of free programming and occasions, together with an ice rink with skate leases, turf and waterspouts, reside musical performances, film screenings, and occasions together with the Purple River Market and annual Downtown Avenue Truthful

Different award winners embrace:

Sakakawea Award for a Behind-the-Scenes Tourism Worker – Joel Walters, Dickinson Conference and Guests Bureau. Walters has labored on the CVB since 2003. One initiative he’s created is the Espresso Cruise of retailers alongside the Previous Purple Previous Ten Scenic Byway and past to Medora.

Telegraph Award for Advertising and marketing Expertise – Larger Grand Forks CVB for the FORKS: 5 in 5 Marketing campaign. The video undertaking includes interviewing people or teams engaging in “Merely Grand” acts enticing to potential guests and residents.

Heritage Award for a Entrance-line Tourism Worker – Al Michels, Scenic Theater, Lisbon. Michels and his spouse bought the theater and introduced it to life once more. He has additionally taken half in different efforts to enhance Lisbon and appeal to vacationers.

Trailblazer Award for Tourism Innovation – North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance. The alliance of the state’s 5 tribes is dedicated to defending, selling, preserving, and educating the world in regards to the tradition, historical past, and setting of the sovereign nations.

The Wade Westin Award for Advertising and marketing – North Dakota Nation Fest, New Salem. North Dakota Nation Fest is a rustic music and tenting competition attracting greater than 10,000 individuals in its five-year span.

Gov. Doug Burgum lauded the award winners, and famous that greater than 2,700 companies and 35,561 individuals within the journey and tourism sector “make journeys to North Dakota memorable, and diversify our financial system.”

For extra info, go to

belegendary.hyperlink/2022GovTravelAwardWinners

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