Pigeon Forge Winterfest Named in Top 100 Events
by Jeff on January 5, 2009
in Attractions
For the third time this decade, Pigeon Forge Winterfest is on a list of the top 100 travel events in North America.The 20th anniversary Pigeon Forge Winterfest for the winter of 2009-2010 is one of the American Bus Association’s Top 100 Events in North America. Dates are Nov. 5, 2009-Feb. 28, 2010. (This year’s event, the 19th one, begins Nov. 6.)
The ABA announces its list each fall for the upcoming year so tour operators and individual travelers can use it for travel planning.
Pigeon Forge Winterfest’s prior selections were in 2006 and in 2003, when it earned the special designation as that year’s Top Event in the U.S.
The Top 100 Events offer excellent entertainment value to tour groups and individual travelers, according to Peter Pantuso, ABA’s president and CEO. He called Pigeon Forge Winterfest a “don’t-miss entertainment value.”
Pigeon Forge Winterfest offers visitors an acclaimed array of decorative light displays throughout the city (more than five million lights), guided trolley tours, holiday festivities and a series of special activities that focus on Great Smoky Mountains National Park, outdoor activities, cowboy poetry and western music.
“Pigeon Forge Winterfest was created to generate business during our slowest season, and it has succeeded on a grand scale. The Winterfest months now are Pigeon Forge’s second-busiest time of the year,” said Leon Downey, executive director of the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism.
The ABA’s Pantuso echoed that message, noting that a motorcoach group can leave from $6,000 to more than $13,000 in a destination’s economy with just one overnight stay. Lodging, meals, attractions, shopping, services and taxes account for those expenditures.
“Pigeon Forge Winterfest is a potential magnet for tourism dollars at a time when re-energizing domestic tourism is so important to our spirit and our economy. The honor gives Pigeon Forge Winterfest an important boost in visibility among professional tour planners,” Pantuso said.
Hundreds of events across the U.S. and Canada are nominated by state and provincial tourism offices and by convention and visitors bureaus. Judges consider each event’s broad appeal, its accessibility to motorcoaches, its skill in handling large groups and other criteria.
Other Top 100 Events include the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho; the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nev.; the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Mich.; the Banff Summer Arts Festival in Banff, Alberta; the Taste of Charleston food festival in Charleston, S.C.; and Lobsterpaloosa in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
“There is a huge number of impressive, high-powered events every year in the U.S. and Canada for the judges to evaluate. When you read the Top 100 list, Pigeon Forge is in some great company. Our community has accomplished a lot by building Pigeon Forge Winterfest into what it is today,” Downey said.
Pigeon Forge Winterfest also has received the Southeast Tourism Society’s Shining Example Award as the Southeast’s Festival of the Year three times and has received numerous awards from the International Festivals and Events Association.
The ABA ‘s 2009 Top 100 Events list is at www.buses.org . Visitor information about Pigeon Forge is at www.MyPigeonForge.com or toll-free 1-800-251-9100.
