ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Visit Albuquerque (Visit Albuquerque) was honored with two gold awards at the annual Cumbre Awards Dinner for the New Mexico Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

The Visit Albuquerque’s gold awards recognized the www.itsatrip.org website in the website tactic category, and the Visit Albuquerque Press Tours earned a gold award in the media relations tactic category.

The website tactic award recognized great design, functionality and successful marketing, with huge increases in web traffic. Comparing 2006 to 2007, user sessions are up 51%, unique visitors are up 36%, search engine referrals have increased 117% and total page views are up 263%. Recent efforts have moved the Visit Albuquerque website up 335 positions in various search engine categories.

Visit Albuquerque travel media relations efforts were recognized because of substantial increases in media coverage in 2007 over 2006 – 19% increase in number of articles, 21% increase in circulation and 57% increase in advertising equivalency. The additional coverage was due in large part to the success of press tours, contributing to increased exposure for the city of Albuquerque as a travel destination.

Megan Mayo, Visit Albuquerque’s Communications Manager, was also named the Ted B. Sherwin “Member of the Year.” The Ted B. Sherwin Award is presented annually to a member of the chapter who has gone above and beyond in their service to the chapter over the past year. Mayo has served on the chapter board as vice president of membership and secretary.  In the nomination, it was noted that as a past Cumbre Awards Chair, Mayo has been instrumental to the development and progression of the New Mexico Chapter.

The Cumbre Awards Banquet brings public relations practitioners from around New Mexico together to celebrate the work of their peers in a variety of industries and markets.  Awards are given in two categories: tactics and campaigns.  Entries are judged based on a standard of excellence scale and are not judged against other entries.  This year’s entries were judged by the New Orleans Chapter of PRSA.