Gleaner writer wins prestigious tourism journalism award

A writer for The Gleaner, The Weekly Gleaner, and The Weekly Star, Dave Rodney, is this year's recipient of the prestigious Marcia Vickery-Wallace Memorial Award for Excellence in Travel Journalism.

The 2018 award was presented to Rodney last Thursday by Jamaica's Tourism Director Donovan White at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel in New York at an awards gala dinner.

The event was hosted by former CBS news anchor Marlie Hall and was one of the highlights for Caribbean Week in New York, an annual promotion by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).

Rodney is Jamaican, and he is based in the New York area. He has roots in Westmoreland and Portland and is a graduate of Ardenne High School and the University of the West Indies (Faculty of Humanities, Mona).

A Regular Traveller

He's also co-president of IMAGES, LLC, a media marketing company in New York. Rodney travels regularly to Jamaica and the Caribbean and chronicles his journeys and his coverage of events for newspapers, websites, and social-media platforms.

Last year, one of his features brought considerable attention for Port Antonio via a multi-page placement in the New York Daily News.

The journalism award was first presented in 1987 as a tribute to Vickery-Wallace, a former editor of Bride's Magazine. Each year, the award is presented to a writer who has followed in her footsteps with the same dedication of promoting the Caribbean region.

Another award recipient at Thursday night's event was Gail Moaney, founding managing partner at Finn Partners, a leading public relations agency in New York.

Moaney was the winner of the Marcella Martinez Award, which is presented annually for unparalleled achievement in the design and implementation of successful programmes to strengthen and support Caribbean tourism.

The award is named in honour of Marcella Martinez, a Jamaican who dedicated her extraordinary career as a public relations professional to the promotion of tourism to the Caribbean.

The awards previously took the form of a luncheon presentation, but this year, it transitioned to a glitzy evening soirÈe with culinary creations from Barbadian celebrity chef Jason Howard, who flew in to cater the event.

The Jamaica contingent included Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett, chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board John Lynch, White and deputy director for the Americas Donnie Dawson, and his business development team.