September 13, 2015 — It was a proud moment indeed last week when the Working Waterfront Festival, now in its 12th year, was named one of the top 100 festivals in the U.S. and Canada by the American Bus Association.

Don’t tell me you never heard of the American Bus Association. I have it from an authority, Dagny Ashley, the city’s tourism and marketing director, that this is the biggest organization like it in the nation, and serves as a sort of clearinghouse for events and destinations across the land.

How it works is that the group holds what is basically an annual convention called a marketplace, drawing some 3,500 participants like Ashley, who get 7-minute appointments to pitch their event to representatives of huge tour bus companies. The contestants are then judged against each other and those who don’t measure up will get the hook.

Sort of a tourism Gong Show, if you can remember the Gong Show.

Laura Orleans, the organizer of the festival, said it made the Top 100 about a decade ago, but a lot has changed since then. There has been such progress on so many things about tourism that the festival once again was competitive with the best in the country.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times