Historic RailPark wins tourism award for Save the Depot campaign

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Historic RailPark and Train Museum in Bowling Green recently received a Traverse Award for Excellence in Tourism Marketing from the Kentucky Travel Industry Association for its “Save the Depot” campaign.

The RailPark received a Silver Traverse for its efforts.

The award was presented to the RailPark during the Traverse Golden Gala Awards Dinner held on Nov. 7.

For the past 11 months, the train museum has revealed a new poster every month as part of the campaign, one that’s goal is to raise enough funds to keep the RailPark in business.

RailPark Executive Director Jamie Johnson says it was a complete surprise to win this award after competing against some other organizations from Louisville and Lexington.

She adds that winning this award not only helps spread the word about their campaign, but also shows her that it’s been the perfect marketing strategy to (hopefully) keep the depot chugging along for many years to come.

“When we started the Save the Depot campaign we didn’t know how people would respond, we didn’t know if people would care,” said Johnson. “It makes us feel good about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. The support that we’ve received from people just showing that they do care, whether they’re making a contribution financially or they’re volunteering or they’re just calling to say, hey, we care about what you’re doing and you’re important.”

The annual Traverse Awards are judged by a panel of out-of-state travel and tourism industry experts.

Award criteria include concept, creativity, results and impact.

More than 160 entries were submitted from throughout Kentucky for the 2019 competition.