Awards & Recognitions
We’re kind of a big deal.
- First destination marketing organization (DMO) in North Carolina and among the first 24 out of more than 1,000 DMOs in North America accredited to new international standards and best practices in community marketing and promotion.
- Awarded a high of 11 exemplary citations during accreditation review and one additional exemplary citation during the accreditation renewal.
- 2017 Innovation Award winner
- 16 Platinum and Gold & six Honorable Mention MarCom Creative Awards in the international competition for marketing and communications professionals.
- 68 Destination Marketing Achievement Awards (36 Best Practice Innovation awards) in blind statewide judging.
- CEO Susan Amey won the NCTIA Rising Star Award in 2018.
- Earned Green Plus Certification from the Institute for Sustainable Development.
- Good Neighbor Award given by The InterNeighborhood Council of Durham.
- Twice rated number one website out of 1,032 destination websites in North America.
- Seal of Excellence Award from ConventionBureaus.com.
- Best on the Net Award from Zeitgeist.
- Goodmon Award for regional initiatives.
- Six-time featured panelists for best practices at the national level.
- Multiyear winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility.
- One
of only three CVBs in the country selected as a case study for the book, Guide to Best Practices in Tourism and Destination Management. Awarded Readers' Choice Awards by convention and meeting planner readers of ConventionSouth magazine. Rated in top five percent of similar organizations (8.7% on a scale of one to 10) in year-long, in-depth performance diagnostics by Performance Management, Inc. First place booth at the Mid-Year Meeting and Trade Show for Association Executives of North Carolina. eMarketing Association Site of the Year Award. Web Marketing Association's WebAward Competition Standard of Excellence. Overarching Durham brand included as a best practice case study in the book Destination Branding for Small Cities. Recognized as accreditation best practice in Nation's Cities Weekly, the publication of the National League of Cities. Discover Durham succession plan recognized as "best practice" by national association. Ranked by CEO Update in "Top Places to Work in Nonprofits." Discover Durham VP of Group Sales and Business Development Corey Bizzell recognized as "Supplier of the Year" by Meetings Professional International, Carolinas Chapter. Discover Durham received Gold in Community Relations for Durham Delivers at the NC Travel Industry Association awards ceremony in 2021.