Visit Rockwall beat destination marketing organizations from across Texas to win first place in the Meeting and Convention Promotion category at the 2026 Texas Tourism Awards.

The honor, announced during the Destinations Texas 2026 Annual Conference held Sept. 2-4 at the Dallas/Plano Marriott at Legacy Town Center in Plano, recognized the organization's work promoting Rockwall as a meetings and conventions destination. Visit Kilgore placed second in the category, the Rockwall County Herald-Banner reported.

The award is part of the Destination Excellence Awards program, which recognizes achievement across four categories: leisure travel promotion, digital innovation, sports and meeting and convention promotion. Nearly 400 tourism professionals from across Texas attended the three-day conference, according to the Amarillo Globe-News.

Kathleen Davis, president and CEO of Destinations Texas, told the Amarillo Globe-News the conference is built around peer learning. "The strongest ideas in Texas tourism are already sitting in these rooms," she said. "Our job is to get them moving between communities."

The first-place finish caps a stretch of tourism milestones for Rockwall. At an Aug. 4, 2025, city council meeting, Jodi Willard, then the director of tourism with the Rockwall Area Chamber of Commerce, told council members that Rockwall had earned the "Texas Tourism Friendly Community" designation. That made it the fifth city in the state to receive it.

Willard reported at that meeting that two conferences held in Rockwall had generated more than 80 booked hotel room nights and an estimated economic impact exceeding $40,000. She also said four additional conferences and one major sporting event had been secured for Rockwall through 2028.

Willard told the council in August 2025 that visitors were drawn to the restaurants, the lake views and downtown's walkability, saying the city was getting a lot of positive feedback.

No public statement from Visit Rockwall leadership about the first-place finish had been released as of Sept. 19. The four conferences and sporting event Willard outlined for Rockwall through 2028 remain on the horizon.