PASADENA, CA--The North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) is announcing the winners of its 2009 awards competition. NATJA’s mission is to support the professional development of its members, provide exceptional benefits and valuable resources, support high quality professional journalism, promote travel and leisure activities to the public and honor the excellence of journalism throughout the world. Its awards competition, now in its 18th year, honors the “best of the best” of both travel writing, photography and travel promotion submitted by travel journalists, travel magazines, public relations agencies and destination marketing organizations (DMOs/CVBs) from the United States, Canada and Mexico. “This was a banner year for excellence,” stated Helen Hernandez, CEO of the organization. “Given the creativity, writing and vision of the submissions, the judges had a difficult time selecting the winners from the more than 500 entries.”

One 1st Place winner is chosen in each of 51 categories, along with runners up that receive Awards of Merit recognition. Then, five overall grand prize winners are selected in recognition of “outstanding excellence.”

Although winners are being announced now, the winners will be presented with their awards at the opening night dinner of the North American Travel Journalists Association’s annual conference on May 11th, 2010, at the Atlantis Hotel in Reno, Nevada.