Home    Media    Knoxville’s Honda Hoot rally honored as “Top 20 Event” by the Southeast Tourism Society

Knoxville’s Honda Hoot rally honored as “Top 20 Event” by the Southeast Tourism Society

NOVEMBER 29, 2007 – KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tourism officials with the Knoxville Tourism & Sports Corporation (KTSC) announced today that the Southeast Tourism Society (STS) had selected the annual Honda Hoot rally as a “Top 20 Event” for the month of June 2008.
The Honda Hoot, one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the nation, brings approximately 15,000 motorcycle enthusiasts to town every June and 2008 will mark the eighth consecutive year that the rally has been held in Knoxville.
The event takes place in Knoxville’s Chilhowee Park and features vendor exhibits, demo rides and organized self-guided tours of the region. Many attendees spend their days riding motorcycles all over East Tennessee, and then come back to Knoxville for various events including street parties. In 2007, the “Saturday Night on the Square” street party made history when it brought a Ferris wheel to downtown Knoxville’s Gay Street for the first time ever.
“The KTSC is pleased to announce that the Honda Hoot has won this prestigious award. We love to see the thousands of motorcycles that flood into town every June, and we are delighted that this event has won the recognition it deserves,” said Gloria Ray, KTSC’s President and CEO.
The economic impact for the Honda Hoot has been estimated at $21.6 million in previous years. The dates for the 2008 Honda Hoot rally are June 18-21.
Other Knoxville event recipients of the “Top 20 Event” award include the Chrysler Jeep Boomsday Festival, the Dogwood Arts Festival and the Knoxville Opera’s Rossini Festival. 2008 marks the first year that the Honda Hoot rally has won the award.
According to William T. Hardman, President and CEO of STS, the “Top 20 Events” publication receives extensive exposure in print, media, web, television and radio in the United States and Canada with more than 400 of these outlets receiving “Top 20” listings. Additionally, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution prints the “Top 20 Events” as a regular quarterly feature of its travel section, and the events will be featured on the New Orleans-based radio show “Travel Talk Radio.”
Founded in 1983, the STS is dedicated to the promotion and development of tourism to its member states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The membership includes state travel offices, attractions, hotels, motels, resorts, convention and visitors bureaus, airlines, car rental agencies, newspapers, magazines and other travel-related organizations. Its corporate partners are Amtrak, Days Inn, Delta Air Lines, Madden Preprint Media, SMITH, Southern Living Magazine, TRIPinfo.com and USDM.net.
For general information about Honda Hoot, please visit www.hondahoot.com online or call the Knoxville Tourism & Sports Corporation (KTSC) at (865) 523-7263.