• Merci Rip Van Winkle Gardens, Little River Inn, Clementine, TABASCO®, KONRIKO®, Jungle Gardens, Bayou Teche Museum, Jeanerette Museum and Shadows-on-the-Teche for donating items for our VisitSouth.com weekend getaway sweepstakes.

• Writer Mary Fonseca visited Iberia last week for an article  to be published in AAA Southern Traveler. We'll keep you posted.

• Here are the press releases on the TripAdvisor Certificates of Excellence earned by Landry's and La Quinta. Félicitations!

• Ramada Conference Center is offering a Father's Day brunch. See their ad in our Iberia's Sweet Picks electronic newsletter. Find it in your mail box or on our website.

• Registration is now open for Tour du Teche IV to be held Oct. 4-6 

• National Geographic's new geotourism initiative

We announced in the last newsletters the launch of this new initiative featuring online, locally-built travel guides. We would like to share the following comments by Doug Bourgeois with Louisiana Byways at the Louisiana Office of Tourism:

"This is a partnership with the National Geographic Society we funded through FHWA and BP grants. It was developed to showcase -under the National Geographic Society umbrella-authentic experiences along the Gulf Coast----Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. It's not for casinos, chain type restaurants or big box stores. It one of a kind places to stay, eat, shop, visit, etc ---just like what we showcase along our byways. Please nominate sites in your area and pass this along to anyone who think would qualify. Its free! And we want Louisiana to have lots of points on the map."

Deadline: July 15

Need more details about geotourism? Click here.

For a submission example, click here.

• Louisiana Main Street Redevelopment Incentive Grants applications for 2013/2014 are now available.               Deadline: June 12.

• Like La Quinta Inn & Suites and Landry's of New Iberia, encourage your customers to review your business on TripAdvisor. Sign up for a free business account with TripAdvisor to manage your reviews. Learn more here.

• We received the following letter from the Deepwater Horizon Claims Center regarding Gulf Seafood and Tourism Promotional Funds.

• The Delcambre press tour generated quite a buzz with coverage in ABC News Baton Rouge, the Daily Advertiser , KATC, the Baton Rouge Advocate, KPLC and the Daily Iberian.

LA Sea Grant Video of Delcambre's Press Tour

• Two of our event planners were featured in the media last week: Angela Cestia with the Acadiana Dragon Boat Festival in Acadiana Lifestyle's "Women Making a Difference" (June edition), and Marti Harrell with the Delcambre Seafood & Farmers' Market in the Daily Iberian (Sunday, June 2 issue).

• Rip Van Winkle Gardens were featured as a "Hidden Gem" in the July/August issue of Louisiana Cooking (p.69-70).

• Tune in to LPB2 on June 17 at 12 a.m. to watch the Iberia episode of "Go Coast: Louisiana." Details here. The program was initiated by the Louisiana Tourism Coastal Coalition of which we are a member.

• Spread the word about our VisitSouth.com weekend getaway sweepstakes:

• The Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival has a beautiful new website.

• Get our monthly event calendar write up in the Media/Press Release section of our website. For updated information, consult our calendar of events section.