Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma honored during Annual RedBud Awards

DURANT, Okla. – The Oklahoma Travel Industry Association (OTIA) held its annual RedBud Awards at the Oklahoma History Center on June 14, where the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) was recognized for the Annual Choctaw Nation PowWow.

Open to all Oklahoma tourism entities, the RedBud Awards represent the highest honor given in the Oklahoma tourism industry. The awards recognize Oklahoma’s top tourism attractions, events, programs and organizations for outstanding efforts to serve and promote Oklahoma’s tourism industry.

“This year’s RedBud Award submissions were highly competitive,” said Debra Bailey, OTIA President and CEO. “With travel picking back up, each submission is an example of why Oklahoma is a perfect travel destination, and we are thrilled to be honoring these entries.”

CNO’s Annual Choctaw Nation PowWow earned the Redbud Merit in the Outstanding Event category. The PowWow held in December 2021, was a tremendous success with over 600 registered dancers and over 50 tribes from more than 25 states and three Canadian provinces participating. The event drew hundreds of spectators to Southern Oklahoma and had 640,000 live stream views across 111 countries, according to powwows.com reporting.

All entries were evaluated by a slate of tourism professionals on specific criteria including customer service and experience, marketing effectiveness, media relations, variety of audiences reached, value and overall creativity.

CNO’s tourism department submits RedBud nominations every year between 15 categories and has won six awards since 2017.