Diann Bayes Wins 2023 Gene Phillips Hospitality Award

Diann Bayes Wins 2023

Gene Phillips Hospitality Award

It gives us great pleasure to announce that the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Travel Information Division has selected Diann Bayes as the winner of the 2023 Gene Phillips Hospitality Award. This award will be presented on April 20, 2023 at ceremonies during the annual Texas Travel Counselors Conference and Texas Travel Expo, held in Mesquite this year by the Mesquite Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Texas Travel Alliance (TTA), and TxDOT. The award recognizes Bayes’s career and dedication to the Texas tourism industry, as well as her outstanding contributions to and support of TxDOT’s Travel Information Centers and the state’s $76 billion travel industry.

“We are lucky to have such a great friend and supporter in Diann,” said Joan Henderson, Director of TxDOT’s Travel Information Division. “She’s a true Texan to the core, and the Texas travel industry wouldn’t be what it is without her. It’s a real honor to present her with this award.”

With more than 25 years in the travel & tourism industry, Bayes currently serves as the President of Visit Tyler, where she oversees operations, tourism, and conventions in the Tyler area. Previous positions include Vice President of Discover San Angelo and Senior Vice President of Member Services & Development at TTA. Bayes serves on the TTA Board of Directors, where she co-chairs the Legislative Affairs Committee, and has also served as a board member of the Texas Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (TACVB), Texas Forts Trail Region, Texas Lakes Trail Region, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Area Tourism Council. She is certified as a Texas Destination Marketer by the Texas Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus.

In addition to her professional career in the industry, Bayes’s blog, “How Big is Texas,” chronicles her personal travels throughout the state, kicking off with a road trip around the perimeter of Texas in 2020. The blog highlights her impressive photography skills, and some of her work has been used in online articles by Texas Monthly, Huffington Post, and the Houston Chronicle, among others.

When the TTA fall Study Tour for TxDOT travel counselors and Texas State Parks had to pause in-person operations during COVID, Bayes produced an in-depth virtual tour experience of San Angelo in 2021. When the in-person tour resumed in fall 2022, she stepped in to help plan the event. She worked closely with numerous destinations to coordinate tour bus itineraries, meals, accommodations, and other logistics for the group over the course of the week, as well as joining the tour personally to keep everything running smoothly and spend quality time with attendees. She is a regular presence at the Texas Travel Expo and maintains close relationships with TxDOT’s travel counselors.

The Gene Phillips Hospitality Award is named in honor of the late Gene Phillips, who managed Aquarena Springs in San Marcos in the 1970s and was a formative influence on the early Texas tourism industry. Each year the award is presented by the TxDOT Travel Information Division in recognition for the kind of outstanding contributions that reflect Mr. Phillips’s legacy.

This year’s conference will also recognize the 2023 Lone Star and Roadrunner award winners, who will be announced at the awards program on April 20.