Rand McNally's 2013 Best of the Road® Program Begins!

SKOKIE, Ill., July 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Once again, Rand McNally is searching for the Best Small Towns* in America. This year, Rand McNally teams up with two new partners, Good Sam Club and Geocaching.com. With these new partnerships, the Best of the Road program kicks off today and is sure to provide excitement, inspiration, and an increase in travelers interested in visiting America's best small towns.  Winning towns in six categories will receive a FREE custom iPhone App and online travel guide developed by Rand McNally, coverage in the 2015 Road Atlas, billions of media impressions, thousands of new visitors and more!

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In 2012, with over 700 towns participating and over 1 billion media impressions generated, thousands of road travelers and small town residents encouraged friends, family, and fellow residents to vote for their favorite town in 5 different categories: Most Beautiful, Most Fun, Most Patriotic, Friendliest and Best for Food.

"The Best of the Road program put us on the map in a way that no amount of traditional advertising could," said Kim Huston, President of the Nelson County Economic Development Agency, representing Bardstown, KY.  "We have received so many national accolades, visits and notoriety because of Best of the Road. Best of the Road showcased what our community is truly about, and why it should be part of your journey.  People are driving 100 miles out of their way to visit with us.  Local businesses shared that the recognition of our town as the 'Most Beautiful' in 2012 has led to significant increases in revenues, and our residents are even more proud to hail from Bardstown, KY – the Most Beautiful Small Town in America!"

This summer, Best of the Road will again ask America to vote for the small towns that everyone should visit. But this year will be better than ever, with a new category and more online and social media interaction as Best of the Road goes all-virtual! Enhancements to Best of the Road 2013 include:

• A new website featuring a simple path to registration and easy voting features.
• Increased integration with social media.
• A new category – Best for Geocaching, sponsored by Geocaching.com.

"The addition of two new partners this year brings a great combination of inspiration and trip-planning, and a new way to experience a small town – all via technology," says Dave Muscatel, CEO of Rand McNally. "Our new digital product offerings for CVBs and DMOs, in addition to our partnerships with Good Sam and Geocaching.com provide tools to optimize the trip experience. Between Good Sam's online trip planner, where travelers create a road trip and download it to the Good Sam GPS device for navigation, and Geocaching.com, which promotes pre-planned GeoTours within a location to attract the Geocaching community, we've combined forces to help destinations showcase the best that their towns have to offer."

Program Details
From July 1 through September 3, 2013, nominations will be accepted, and the competition to capture the most votes in each of the six categories – Most Beautiful, Most Fun, Most Patriotic, Friendliest, Best for Food, and Best for Geocaching will take place.  Five finalists will be selected in each category by a panel of travel experts based on a number of criteria.

Finalists and winning towns and will be featured in Good Sam Club's Road Trip Planner, a new online tool that helps road-trippers organize and plan their trips and the stops along the way.

Also new this year:  the winning town in each category will receive a FREE custom online travel guide and iPhone app – the perfect way to promote your town to travelers across America - developed by Rand McNally and powered by Best of the Road.  Additionally, the winning Best for Geocaching town will receive a FREE GeoTour, courtesy of Geocaching.com. Geocachers from around the world will be able to use the Geocaching smartphone app to learn about the town's best places via strategically placed geocaches.

Follow and participate in Best of the Road today. Use your social network to captivate America with everything your community has to offer! 

*Small towns for the Best of the Road program are defined using the 2010 U.S. Census definition of "Places" (Towns, Cities, Villages, CDPs, Municipalities, etc.) and having a population of under 150,000.

About Rand McNally – Rand McNally is the most trusted source for maps, directions, and travel content. Products and services include: Road travel review site bestoftheroad.com; America's #1 Road Atlas;  RVND™ GPS for RVers; IntelliRoute® truck routing software and navigation devices; TPC 7600 and TND™ 760 mobile fleet management solutions for the transportation industry; and leading geography-based educational resources for the classroom. randmcnally.com

IntelliRoute, Best of the Road and Rand McNally are registered trademarks and TND and RVND are trademarks of RM Acquisition, LLC d/b/a Rand McNally.

SOURCE Rand McNally