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Tunica RiverPark Wins International Telly Award
Tourism Video Picked from a Record Breaking Pool of Entries

Tunica, Mississippi (June 21, 2007)—The winners of the 28th Annual Telly Awards were announced recently, and the Tunica RiverPark museum took one of the top honors.

“We were thrilled to find out the Tunica RiverPark museum tourism video won an international Telly Award,” Jerlene Rhodes, the executive director of the Tunica RiverPark, said. “The RiverPark video shows potential visitors how the 168-acre RiverPark, museum and interpretive center, complete with aquariums, interactive exhibits, artifacts, nature trail, and Tunica Queen river cruises, reveals the incredible legend and the life of the Mississippi River.”

The video was written, directed, and produced by Combs and Company, the Tunica RiverPark’s advertising agency.  Combs is a Little Rock based marketing firm that has represented Destination…Tunica since the creation of the Tunica Convention & Visitors Bureau in 1997.

“Winning this award is wonderful recognition for one of South’s great new attractions,” Ben Combs, president of Combs and Company, said.  “Our goal for this video was to highlight the beauty and many unique activities of the Tunica RiverPark.”

Officials from this year’s Telly Award judging say this award for the Tunica RiverPark is outstanding, considering the competition. 

“With a record 13,379 entries from all 50 states and five continents, this year's competition has been the most competitive and successful in the long history of the Telly Awards,” Richard Friley, the Emmy and Telly award-winning chairman of the judging panel, said.

Since its 2004 opening, the Tunica RiverPark and museum has one Southeast U.S. and Mississippi’s Travel Attraction of the Year in 2005, along with seven other national and regional awards since then, including several architectural awards. 

The Tunica RiverPark is open daily, except for Christmas Day. Museum hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Nature Trail and Park are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets to the museum are $5 for adults, $4 for children age 12 and under, and $4 for seniors age 65 and older. Group rates are available. For more information, call 866-517-4837 (toll free) or visit the website at www.tunicariverpark.com.  The Tunica Queen sails six days a week with three sightseeing cruises daily and a dinner cruise nightly April through November.  For more information, or to book a group, call the Tunica Queen office at 1-866-805-3535, or visit www.tunicaqueen.com. 

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world.

Tunica, an area where cotton, rice, soybean fields and catfish ponds still thrive, is “The South’s Casino Capital.”  Located 30 minutes south of Memphis, Tunica welcomes more than 15 million visitors annually to its nine world-class casino resorts, with more than 6,300 new hotel rooms, over 40 restaurants, three championship golf courses, outdoor recreation, museums, outlet and antique shopping, and much more. For travel information, please visit the Tunica website at tunicamiss.com or call Tunica toll free at 888-4-TUNICA.

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NOTE TO EDITORS FOR CUTLINE:  “Jerlene Rhodes, the executive director of the Tunica RiverPark and museum, holds a Telly Award, one of the top production awards internationally, that was given to the Tunica RiverPark this month.  Two years ago, the RiverPark was also named the Southeast Travel Attraction of the Year.”

NOTE TO EDITORS:  For a variety of photos of Tunica, please visit the Press Room of the Tunica website at www.tunicamiss.com . Selections of recent high resolution photographs are available for all Tunica attractions.  If you are unable to find the photo needed for your article, please contact Claire Pittman at the number listed above, and for more details about all the great attractions and facilities in Tunica, please see the official Tunica Press Kit.

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