RVP~1875 and History Boy Theatre Company in Jefferson won the Outstanding Tourism Attraction in the State of Iowa award from Travel Iowa and the Travel Federation of Iowa at Thursday night’s Iowa Tourism Conference.

Co-owner Robby Pedersen talks about what winning the top tourism award in the state means to him.

“An award like this honestly has been a life goal for me. I mean this is 25 years of being on this road to try to get here. I spent those 10 years of Living History Farms and I knew about tourism awards, you hear about them. Giant places with multi-millions of dollars get them. Then when I started RVP~1875, I set out for a goal for myself 15 years ago.”

He adds that a group of judges secretly go around to various tourism attractions in the state and critique each place before making their final decision. Angie Pedersen says it’s gratifying winning the award when their businesses were up against all the metro areas as well.

“It’s definitely not an easy road to be on, especially in a rural area where foot traffic, they just don’t dump through the door. To be able to draw this kind of attention without a lot of the things that they big dogs have, it’s quite an achievement.”

RVP~1875 and History Boy Theatre Company has won the Outstanding Retail Experience Award and the Outstanding Tourism Business from Travel Iowa and the Travel Federation of Iowa the previous two years.

Robby is proud to bring the award back to his hometown of Jefferson.