Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International has announced that Roger J. Dow and Howard Feiertag, CHME, CMP, CHA, will be honored as lifetime achievement award recipients when the association convenes January 28 for its 56th annual Adrian Awards Gala in New York City. The awards honor achievement in advertising, public relations, and digital marketing, focused on the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries.
Roger Dow
Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association since 2005, will receive HSMAI’s Albert E. Koehl Award for advertising and marketing. HSMAI cites Dow’s work promoting the value of meetings to lawmakers and the public as well as his leadership in the push to pass the Travel Promotion Act, which established Brand USA, a program to promote international travel to the U.S.
Past recipients of the Albert E. Koehl Award include Eric A. Danziger, president and CEO of Wyndham Hotel Group; J.W. Marriott, Jr., chairman and CEO of Marriott International Inc.; Sol Kerzner, founder, chairman, and CEO of Kerzner International Holdings; and Ian Schrager, chairman and CEO of Ian Schrager Co.
Howard Feiertag, CHME, CMP, CHA
Feiertag, a member of the faculty at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., will be awarded the Winthrop W. Grice Award, marking lifetime achievement in public relations. The honor recognizes his 53-year career in the hospitality industry, 30 of which have been dedicated to educating future hospitality professionals. Among other honors, Feiertag has also received the Virginia Tech Award for Excellence in Outreach and the Student Choice Award at Virginia Tech from the Student Alumni Associates.
In past years, the Winthrop W. Grice Award has gone to Mary Gendron, president of Middleton & Gendron Brand Communications; Vivian A. Deuschl, corporate vice president of public relations for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.; and Laura Davidson, founder and president of LDPR.
The HSMAI Lifetime Achievement Awards Selection Committee is made up of former Koehl and Grice Award recipients and selects winners based on skill, leadership, and innovation, among other qualities.