Authors & Inns - A Spring Lake Event Honored by Governor
“AUTHORS & INNS – A SPRING LAKE EVENT – HONORED BY GOVERNOR”
Annual Event Receives Coveted New Jersey Governor’s Tourism Award
Spring Lake, NJ (April 2008) Spring Lake, the ‘Sweetheart of the Jersey Shore’ is celebrating a notable triumph! At the 2008 Governor’s Tourism Award Ceremony on April 10, the Historic Inns of Spring Lake received one of only 10 awards presented to exemplary organizations or individuals …for their signature June event – Authors & Inns – A Spring Lake Event. These awards set a “…benchmark for excellence in the New Jersey tourism industry, contributing to the experience of visitors and the quality of life of NJ residents.”
Attending the Conference on behalf of the Historic Inns association, innkeeper Mari Kennelly, owner of White Lilac Inn and Barb Vogel, prior Inn owner accepted the award that reads “New Jersey Excellence in Tourism 2008”.
In June 2007, Authors & Inns – A Spring Lake Event was launched to much acclaim throughout the metropolitan New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut area. It generated a significant amount of publicity about the participating authors on the Sunday tour, including Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark, among the 15 authors who met fans and autographed books in each of 11 historic inns.
On June 8, 2008, the event is taking place again; this year the tour features 12 New Jersey romance (genre) authors, each author paired with an inn throughout the afternoon. Once again they will be greeting fans and signing books.
The Authors & Inns Tour fulfills the Governor’s criteria for winning the award, which is working toward the common goal of improving the New Jersey tourism product, attracting out-of-state visitors and increasing tourism expenditures. Many tour attendees stayed at the inns, dined in Spring Lake vicinity restaurants and shopped in the surrounding area.
According to Mari Kennelly “I felt it was worth the time to apply for the Governor’s Award, hopefully to put our event into the limelight. We have such a unique and beautiful small town and it’s finally being found. We were competing against very large venues but our little event last June had more impact than we could even imagine.”
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