Originally published in H&MM December 17, 2012
Hotel Management's longtime Sales Clinic columnist, Howard Feiertag, will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International in January.
Feiertag, a faculty member at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, will receive the Winthrop W. Grice Award for public relations and excellence. Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, will receive the Albert E. Koehl Award for advertising and marketing.
Feiertag was chosen as the Grice winner due to his outstanding dedication to his work and to the education of future hospitality professionals throughout the past 30 years, and Dow was chosen as the Koehl winner because of his extensive and lasting contributions to increase travel to and within the United States. He is recognized for his diligent work to grow inbound visitation and for widely promoting the benefits of travel to policymakers, business leaders and individual travelers.
The HSMAI Lifetime Achievement Awards Selection Committee consists of 11 former Koehl and Grice Award recipients and selects winners based on skill, leadership qualities and demonstration of innovation, among other credentials.
“Roger Dow and Howard Feiertag have shown extraordinary motivation and creativity within their fields,” said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, president and CEO of HSMAI. “HSMAI is proud to honor these individuals for their dedication to the industry throughout their careers, and we look forward to seeing how their achievements inspire the industry leaders of tomorrow.”
Albert E. Koehl Award
Roger Dow
Since 2005, Dow has served as the president and CEO of U.S. Travel Association, the national organization that encompasses all sectors of travel in America.
Dow was instrumental in leading an industry-wide movement for creation of the Travel Promotion Act. This bipartisan legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March 2010, established the nation’s first-ever communications and promotion program, known as Brand USA, which aims to increase international travel to the United States.
This year, Dow was named by CEO Update as one of the Top CEOs in Associations in 2012 out of more than 7,000 trade associations.
Prior to joining U.S. Travel, Dow spent 34 years with Marriott International, beginning as a summer lifeguard and rising to senior vice president of global and field sales, where he led Marriott’s 10,000-person worldwide sales organization and helped develop the world’s leading frequent traveler program, Marriott Rewards.
Dow has served on boards of various associations, including MPI Foundation, where he has a dual role as chairman, and is on the Advisory Boards of Arizona State University’s Center for Services Leadership and the University of the Richmond Robins School of Business.
A New Jersey native, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Seton Hall University and was honored as one of the university’s Most Distinguished Alumnus in 2012.
Named in honor of Albert E. Koehl, a pioneer in hotel advertising, past recipients include: Eric A. Danziger, Sol Kerzner, Ian Schrager, Barbara Talbott, Barry S. Sternlicht, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, Horst H. Schulze, John J. Russell, CHME, Michael A. Leven, CHME, Richard Branson and Michael D. Eisner.
Winthrop W. Grice Award
Howard Feiertag
Feiertag is a distinguished industry veteran and faculty member in the department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the Pamplin College of Business.
With more than 53 years of combined experience in the hospitality and education industries, Feiertag possesses knowledge in convention bureau management; food and beverage; hotel operations; meetings and convention management; sales and marketing; as well as tour and travel.
Feiertag joined HSMAI in 1962, and has been selected for its International Hall of Fame. In 2004, he received HSMAI’s first annual Excellence in Sales and Marketing Strategy Award and is a Certified Hospitality Marketing Executive (CHME). Additionally, he is a Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA), a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), a “Fellow” and lifetime member of the Institute of Travel Agents (ICTA), and a charter member of Meeting Professionals International (MPI).
He also has received the Virginia Tech Award for Excellence in Outreach, the Arthur Landstreet Award from the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Student Choice Award at Virginia Tech from the Student Alumni Associates. He was voted Educator of the Year by the Professional Convention Management Association and was inducted into the Convention Industry Council’s Hall of Leaders.
Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Feiertag was the senior vice president with Servico, Inc., a Florida-based hotel owner, developer and manager of 60 hotels. He began his career as the inaugural convention bureau manager in Charlotte, N.C.
Feiertag previously served as the group and meetings editor for Travel Trade Publications and for 33 years was a regular contributing columnist for Hotel Management (formerly Hotel & Motel Management magazine). He is also the co-author of “Lessons from the Field – A Common Sense Approach to Effective Hotel Sales.”
The Winthrop W. Grice Award was named in honor of Winthrop W. “Bud” Grice, CHME, a long-time senior marketing executive with Marriott, who was the award’s first designate. Other winners include: Mary Gendron, Vivian A. Deuschl, Laura Davidson, Yvonne Middleton, Peggy R. Bendel, René A. Mack, Lou Hammond, Bunny Grossinger, Herbert D. Kelleher, Steve Wynn and Donald J. Trump.
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