Travel Oregon Broadcasts 2025 Travel & Tourism Industry Achievement Awards on the 2026 Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Portland

On Monday, March 9, 2026, the Oregon Tourism Commission (dba Travel Oregon) introduced the recipients of the 2025 Oregon Travel and Tourism Industry Achievement Awards on the 2026 Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism on the Oregon Convention Center. Hosted by Travel Oregon, in partnership with Travel Portland, the Governor’s Conference is an academic and interactive studying and networking expertise that elevates the variety of voices of people who collectively make Oregon a welcoming vacation spot for all. More than 600 tourism business professionals collect for the occasion to share finest practices and align to make sure not solely the supply of remarkable customer experiences, however that tourism improves high quality of life for residents, advances fairness, respects the variety of ecosystems, cultures and locations of Oregon and strengthens financial resilience for communities across the state.

The Governor’s Award: Oregon Coast Travelability
The Governor’s Award represents the fruits of our business’s deep appreciation for the service and accomplishments of a person or people who’ve enhanced the Oregon customer expertise and elevated the journey and tourism business.

Travel Oregon CEO Todd Davidson was readily available to honor Oregon Coast Travelability—a coastwide, cross-sector collaboration working to make the Oregon Coast a extra accessible place to dwell, work, and go to for folks with disabilities—with the 2025 Governor’s Award. Launched in 2022 by a small group of impressed coastal tourism companions, the coalition has grown into a robust mannequin of collaboration amongst tourism professionals, incapacity advocates, native governments, nonprofit entities and companies.

To date, the group has helped safe greater than $1.3 million in Travel Oregon grant funding for accessibility tasks throughout the coast, funding accessibility verifications by Wheel the World, a web-based journey platform that helps disabled vacationers make knowledgeable journey selections, in addition to high-impact tasks together with accessible tidepool contact tanks on the Oregon Coast Aquarium, an accessible trolley in Yachats, signage on the Coos Bay Boardwalk highlighting the three Tribes indigenous to the realm, an inclusive playground in Lincoln City and expanded accessibility assessments.

“The work of Oregon Coast Travelability was the catalyst for a statewide effort to remove barriers to access for visitors with disabilities,” mentioned Davidson. “In 2025, Oregon became the first state to be Accessibility Verified in partnership with Wheel the World; and though the statewide effort was led by Travel Oregon it was fueled by the momentum, innovation and passionate commitment of this dedicated cross-sector coalition. Their innovative spirit and commitment to collaboration toward this work truly knows no equal.”

Oregon Marketing Award: Travel Portland
The Oregon Marketing Award celebrates the very best built-in home or worldwide general advertising program or marketing campaign that attracted guests to Oregon.

This yr’s Oregon Marketing Award goes to the PR crew at Travel Portland, who, in 2025, launched a strategic communications marketing campaign to raise consciousness of Portland as America’s Literary Capital. Their work on the distinctive and progressive Golden Bookmark marketing campaign promoted Portland because the literary haven that it’s and efficiently captured the curiosity of potential guests in 5 literary-minded cities throughout the nation. The crew partnered with Little Free Library to cover Golden Bookmarks specifically made by Orox Leather Co. in Little Free Libraries throughout the nation and with one literary and journey minded content material creator in every of the 5 goal markets to journey to Portland and inform the story of the town’s literary scene to their followers. The content material not solely centered on Portland’s unbiased bookstores but in addition introduced the seek for the Golden Bookmark of their metropolis.

Oregon Prosperity Award: Oregon Main Street Statewide Coordinating Program
The Oregon Prosperity Award acknowledges DMOs or companies championing the worth of tourism, whose imaginative and prescient and dedication assist make Oregon’s communities, tourism areas and state stronger customer locations, creating optimum financial affect.

Oregon Main Street Statewide Coordinating Program has provided a unifying mannequin for group revitalization in 100+ cities statewide since 2008. Since then, Main Street’s tenets of promotion, organizational help, design and financial vitality with a historic preservation lens, have activated and reactivated communities of all sizes, in each county of Oregon. As of 2021, the work of the Oregon Main Street program and companion organizations have resulted in $134.6 million whole financial affect whereas providing free technical providers for native applications, revitalizing downtowns and awarding tens of millions of {dollars} in grants to communities throughout the state.

Oregon Equity Award: Oregon Black Pioneers
The Equity Award is introduced to a enterprise or vacation spot that has demonstrated management in elevating consciousness or facilitating change to construct a extra inclusive and welcoming atmosphere for guests to Oregon.

Oregon Black Pioneers has earned the Oregon Equity Award and well-deserved recognition for his or her excellent management in advancing fairness via storytelling, training, and cultural preservation of Oregon’s Black communities. From their progressive work in partnership with the tourism group to raise Oregon’s Black historical past to the statewide Black History Walking Tours, York Fest and their celebration of Black-owned companies, Oregon Black Pioneers exemplifies what it means to advance fairness via heritage. Their work uplifts underrepresented histories, deepens cultural understanding, and helps create a extra inclusive Oregon for all.

Oregon Stewardship Award: Local Ocean
The Stewardship Award acknowledges an exercise, occasion, undertaking or program that makes use of a stewardship method to positively affect Oregon’s economic system, cultures and pure atmosphere.

The winner of the Oregon Stewardship Award, Local Ocean has all the time been a frontrunner within the coastal meals ecosystem—and in 2025, they took daring, progressive steps towards pioneering a resilient coastal meals internet. Within months of final yr’s Blue Foods Forum, Local Ocean launched a 100% fish utilization program to scale back waste at their restaurant, reworking what as soon as may need been discarded into scrumptious, purposeful merchandise. This yr, they created a place for a Business Innovation Specialist to steer the event of their new seafood byproducts, which is able to remodel processing side-streams into high-value merchandise that drive income and sustainability and assist drive Local Ocean’s mission of turning into the primary 100% Fish restaurant within the U.S.

The Gene Landsmann Gemütlichkeit Award: Colleen Dougherty
The Gene Landsmann Gemütlichkeit Award honors a person of the Oregon Ski Community (Industry/Sport) who embodies the spirit and impact of Gemütlichkeit. A German-language phrase used to convey the concept of a state or feeling of heat, friendliness and good cheer. Other qualities encompassed by the time period embrace coziness, high quality of life and a way of belonging and well-being.

This yr’s winner, Colleen Dougherty of Oregon Adaptive Sports, is a shining instance of gemütlichkeit throughout the Oregon ski group. For over three many years she has devoted her power, heat and management to making sure that snowboarding is a spot of belonging for all. As a co-founder of Oregon Adaptive Sports in 1996 and a board member since, Colleen has labored tirelessly to open the mountains to folks with disabilities, cultivating a tradition of inclusivity, good cheer and risk on snow. Her private journey as an adaptive athlete, competing as a Paralympic swimmer, then embracing snowboarding, biking and out of doors recreation as a wheelchair person, has impressed numerous others to pursue their very own passions. Through her unwavering advocacy, her private heat and her infections enthusiasm for snowboarding and group, Colleen Dougherty has made Oregon’s slopes a spot the place everybody can really feel at house.

Oregon Tourism Rising Star Award: Fiona Wylde (Wylde Wind & Water) 
The Rising Star Award is introduced to a person who’s new to the tourism business throughout the final 5 years wherein time they’ve proven exemplary management, dedication and keenness for Oregon’s tourism business. This yr, Travel Oregon selected one Rising Star from statewide submissions.

This yr’s Tourism Rising Star goes to Fiona Wylde, the founding father of Wylde Wind & Water, a multifaceted group creating equitable entry to water sports activities applications within the Columbia River Gorge. An expert water sports activities athlete with world titles in stand-up paddleboard (SUP), windsurfing and wing foiling, Fiona is passionate in regards to the well being, psychological and environmental advantages of recreating safely on the water. Paid internships with teenagers in Hood River County School District’s Migrant Education program helps create a talented and various water sports activities workforce. Fiona was not too long ago appointed by Governor Tina Kotek to serve on the Oregon State Marine Board; her free group SUP and wing foiling summer time applications appeal to vacationers from all around the area and the world; and her fee-based youth wing-foiling applications groups and camps serve kids from all around the area.