Wakefield, R.I. – The North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) announced that South County Tourism Council (SCTC) won Silver (2nd place) in the 2017 Annual NATJA Awards Competition in the Destination Video category for a video the council produced promoting and telling the story of Matunuck Oyster Farm and Matunuck Oyster Bar owner Perry Raso. The video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/C6YgIBvklrw

“We are honored to receive the silver award and want to thank Perry Raso of Matunuck Oyster Bar for allowing our Creative Director to follow him around for an entire day with a film crew and share his story,” says Louise Bishop, President of South County Tourism Council. “We hope visitors will tour both the oyster and vegetable farms and experience true farm-to-table cuisine at the restaurant when they’re here.

NATJA Awards, in their 26th year, recognize excellence in travel writing, photojournalism, social media, video, multimedia platforms, advertising, marketing and public relations for the travel and tourism industry. This year, NATJA received more than 800 submissions from all over the world.

“As the awards entries continue to grow, it becomes increasingly difficult for our judges to pick the winners from such a talented pool of submissions. We thank our judges, who represent academia, publications, photographers, and PR professionals, for their significant time commitment in making this year’s selections,” stated NATJA CEO Helen Hernandez.

NATJA is the second largest travel media association in North America. Members include travel media professionals, convention and visitor bureaus, social media, hotels and attractions, and other travel marketing agencies. Members are provided with professional development workshops, peer-to-peer evaluation, web tools and networking opportunities. NATJA also publishes TravelWorld International Magazine (www.travelworldmagazine.com).

For more information about NATJA or a complete list of 2017 award winners and finalists, visit www.natja.org.

The South County Tourism Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the towns of Charlestown, Coventry, East Greenwich, Exeter, Hopkinton, Narragansett, North Kingstown, Richmond, South Kingstown, West Greenwich and Westerly as a single leisure travel destination known as “South County”.  For more information, please visit www.southcountyri.com.