Richard Barentine awarded the Parker Award, the Travel Council of North Carolina's Highest Award

Furniture World Magazine

The Travel Council of North Carolina has honored Richard Barentine. He has been awarded the Charles J. Parker Award, the Travel Council of North Carolina's highest award for individual contributions to North Carolina's travel industry. The award was presented September 12, 2000 during the association's Annual Meeting in Greensboro by Ernest O'Bannion of West Jefferson, N.C. O'Bannion was the Travel Council's President from 1983-1984 and is the 1991 recipient of the Travel Council's Parker Award. Barentine has spent his entire adult career in North Carolina's travel industry. He was a leader in the formative years of the state's Convention and Visitors Bureau industry and served as the Director of the Winston-Salem Convention and Visitors Bureau from 1969-1977. He was the founder of the North Carolina Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus and served as its first President in 1976. In June 2000, the Association created the annual Barentine Special Achievement Award to recognize individual special achievement by a North Carolina Convention & Visitors Bureau employee or community representative who improved the Convention & Visitors Bureau industry in the state. From 1977-1999, he led the International Home Furnishings Market as its Chief Executive Officer during its most dynamic period of growth and tourism impact since Market's beginning in 1909. Under his leadership, Market's domestic attendance increased 113%. International attendance increased 1,000% with the number of countries represented increasing from 30 to 106. Market's square footage increased 60%. The number of exhibit buildings increased 78%. Its exhibitor base increased 85%. Market's tourism economic impact increased 605% from $40 million in 1977 to $282 million in 1998. He was recognized in April 2000 as one of the forty most important leaders in North Carolina's tourism industry in the 20th century by the Industry Advisory Board of the Hospitality Management Program in Appalachian State University's John A. Walker College of Business. He was recognized as one of twenty recipients in the Builders Award category of the Tourism Leaders of the 20th Century Award. The Builders Award category recipients helped develop and promote tourism products, structures or tourism organizations already in existence and took those organizations to new levels of accomplishment. The Travel Council of North Carolina is the umbrella organization that represents North Carolina's vast travel industry. Barentine has been an active leader in the Travel Council since 1969. Since 1995, he has served as the only Chair of the City of Lexington Tourism Authority and its marketing arm, the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau. Barentine was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1944 and is a 1967 graduate of The University of Memphis. He has lived in North Carolina since 1967. Barentine retired July 1999 as the Chief Executive Officer of the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point and Thomasville, N.C. He now maintains his permanent residence in Blowing Rock and residences in Laurel Springs and in Winston-Salem, N.C.