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For Immediate Release
Alan Fogg, Director of Communications
afogg@fceda.org, 703-790-0600 (o) or 571-213-5065 (m)
Illinois woman wins Travelocity.com
contest for Fairfax County holiday
She and family claim prize today
Fairfax County, Virginia, July 17, 2003—Crystal Hickman, a Lewistown, Ill., resident who won a Travelocity.com contest for a Fairfax County holiday, this week claims her prize: Air transportation, hotel accommodations for four nights, passes to George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, and a $200 shopping certificate from Tysons Corner Center, for herself, her husband Kenneth and daughter Cassie.
The Fairfax County Convention and Visitors Bureau, a program of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA), sponsored the contest on Travelocity.com as a way to stimulate tourism to the county. The effort was part of a federally funded effort to promote tourism in northern Virginia after September 11, 2001.
The Travelocity.com contest drew more than 4,500 entries.
The Hickmans will stay in Fairfax County between July 17-21 and visit all around the Washington area. Crystal Hickman owns the Spoon River Mercantile and Dining Co., a tea room and gift shop in Lewistown, which is in central Illinois.
This is the first trip to northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., for Crystal and Kenneth Hickman. Cassie Hickman has been here before with a student group.
“I’ve always wanted to come to the Virginia and Washington, D.C., areas because there is so much to see, and that’s what drew me to the contest,” Crystal Hickman said. “When they told me I’d won I said, ‘Really, are you sure?’ I was just dumbfounded.”
“Tourism is an important component of the county economy and was hurt badly after 9/11,” said Gerald L. Gordon, president and CEO of the FCEDA. “We were delighted to see the attention that the Travelocity promotion brought to Fairfax County, and we’re thrilled that the Hickmans will be here to see everything that Fairfax County and the Washington, D.C., area has to offer.”
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