Visit Lake Charles Celebrates Louisiana Travel Association Awards, Graduations

Visit Lake Charles (VLC) is proud to announce Louisiana’s Playground has been acknowledged with three awards at this 12 months’s Louisiana Travel Association (LTA) Louey Award celebration and two Louisiana Tourism Leadership Academy (LTLA) graduations in Lafayette on Jan. 22.   

The Louey Awards have fun excellence, innovation, and repair within the Louisiana tourism trade and honor people and organizations whose management has reworked communities. The LTLA commencement ceremony commemorates the completion of a yearlong coaching program designed to proceed educating the following technology of tourism professionals. 

Restaurateur of the Year: Eric Avery  

A local of Sulphur, Louisiana, Eric Avery is acknowledged for redefining Southwest Louisiana’s culinary and cultural panorama. As founding father of Crying Eagle Brewing Company, Avery reworked a easy query: “Why doesn’t Lake Charles have a brewery?”, into one of many largest microbrewery eating places within the nation, welcoming greater than 200,000 friends yearly. 

From award-winning craft beers to dwell music, group occasions, and revolutionary delicacies, Crying Eagle has change into a cornerstone of regional tourism. In 2025, Avery expanded his imaginative and prescient with the opening of Crying Eagle Lakefront, a waterfront vacation spot that has rapidly change into a must-visit expertise for locals and guests alike. 

“This award is incredibly humbling,” Avery mentioned. “Crying Eagle has always been about bringing people together and creating a place where community, culture, and hospitality intersect. None of this would be possible without our family, our team, and a community that believed in the vision from the very beginning.” 

Tourism Event of the Year: Smoke & Barrel 

What started as a small gathering between associates on the banks of the Calcasieu River has grown into one in every of Southwest Louisiana’s most celebrated vacation spot festivals. Smoke & Barrel, is a high-quality culinary and spirits-centered occasion that draws guests all whereas giving again to the group. 

Now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group, Smoke & Barrel, Inc. produces three annual festivals — Smoke & Barrel Lake Charles, Smoke & Barrel Lafayette, and Rum Revival. Through these occasions the group blends bourbon, barbecue, Caribbean heritage, and philanthropy into unforgettable experiences. In 2024 alone, the competition generated greater than $700,000 in complete enterprise gross sales and donated $30,000 to United Way of Southwest Louisiana’s SUCCESS BY 6 initiative. 

“Smoke & Barrel was built on friendship, community, and the belief that great events can make a real difference,” mentioned Nathaniel Allured and Adam Fontenot, founders of the nonprofit and competition. “To see it acknowledged at this degree is an honor, and it reinforces our mission to create experiences that not solely deliver folks collectively, however additionally give again to the communities we’re proud to serve throughout Louisiana.” 

Will Mangham Tourism Lifetime Achievement Award: Anne Taber Klenke 

For greater than 35 years, Anne Taber Klenke has quietly formed how the world experiences Southwest Louisiana and the state as an entire. Her profession spans the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association (now the LTA), The Graham Group, and Visit Lake Charles, the place she most just lately served as vice president of vacation spot improvement and group engagement. 

Klenke’s affect might be seen in legacy tasks such because the Creole Nature Trail All-American Road, worldwide tourism partnerships, and community-centered vacation spot improvement initiatives. Known for her compassion, humility, and unwavering perception in tourism as a drive for good, Klenke’s affect continues to be felt throughout the state. 

“I have always believed that tourism is really about people — the people who live here and the people who come to experience our communities,” Klenke mentioned. “I am deeply grateful for this honor and for the many colleagues and partners who have made this journey so meaningful.” 

Louisiana Tourism Leadership Academy Graduates: Toni Chapman and Emily Treme 

During the Louisiana Travel Association’s Annual Meeting this month in Lafayette, Toni Chapman, digital content material supervisor, and Emily Treme, director of affiliation gross sales at VLC, had been acknowledged as 2025 LTLA graduates. Chapman and Treme efficiently accomplished the affiliation’s coaching program. They had been two of the over 20 graduates who had been honored. 

LTLA was created to construct future tourism leaders, develop their management expertise and strengthen their networks, subsequently enriching their tourism-related organizations. Visit Lake Charles proudly has 15 LTLA Graduates thus far. 

“These honorees represent the very best of Southwest Louisiana tourism,” mentioned Kyle Edmiston, the president and CEO of Visit Lake Charles. “Eric Avery, Smoke & Barrel, and Anne Taber Klenke have each made a lasting impact by elevating experiences, supporting their communities, and showing how tourism can be a powerful driver of pride and economic growth. I am also proud of the work of Toni and Emily and their commitment to expanding their knowledge of the Louisiana tourism industry. We are proud to celebrate their achievements and the legacy they continue to build.” 

Download the honorees and graduates’ images here. 

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About Visit Lake Charles    

Visit Lake Charles, the official vacation spot advertising and marketing group for Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana, is the one group in Southwest Louisiana offering advocacy, promotion and schooling for the tourism trade. For extra data on Visit Lake Charles and issues to see and do in Louisiana’s Playground, go browsing to VisitLakeCharles.org. 

About the Louisiana Travel Association (LTA)  

LTA is a commerce affiliation main and strengthening Louisiana’s vibrant tourism trade by means of promotion, schooling and advocacy on behalf of our members. Tourism generated $18.5 billion for Louisiana in 2024 and employs greater than 224,600 folks statewide, remaining the 4th largest employer within the state.