New York, N.- More than 900 industry and agency professionals gathered at the New York Marriott Marquis Monday evening in celebration of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) 56th annual Adrian Awards.

The evening’s focus was to honor those who have created exceptional advertising, digital marketing and public relations campaigns in the hospitality, travel and tourism industries.

“HSMAI was astounded by the amount of talent we found through submissions for the Adrian Awards,” said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, president and CEO of HSMAI. “The amount of creativity and dedication in each campaign is unmatched, and each honoree should be immensely proud of their work.”

HSMAI received slightly more than 1,200 submissions attained on a worldwide scale for the 2012 Adrian Awards. Among them, Platinum winners were selected from the entries seen as the most superlative Gold winners, including PUNTACANA Resort & Club which received the top distinction as the winner of the prestigious Leader in Sustainable Tourism Award presented by HSMAI and National Geographic Traveler.

The award acknowledges the resort for having shown demonstrable leadership and innovation in preserving and communicating an authentic sense of place through a wisely managed tourism campaign. Nominees in the category were judged by how their efforts preserve the environmental, cultural and historic integrity of a destination, and how the program demonstrated leadership, innovation and accomplished its goals.

In attendance to receive the award were Robert Kheel, a member of the Board of Directors of Grupo PUNTACANA, and Jake Kheel, environmental director for Grupo PUNTACANA and the head of the PUNTACANA Ecological Foundation, a not-for-profit entity that spearheads innovative and groundbreaking practices in sustainable tourism that strive to maintain harmony with the environment and local community.

PUNTACANA Resort & Club, a luxury resort community owned and operated by Grupo PUNTACANA, has been a pioneer of sustainable tourism since its inception, and is committed to continuing its robust environmental and social initiatives.

Its efforts include water treatment, waste management, recycling, energy conservation, and natural resources and coastal preservation. “We are humbled to be honored for our ongoing dedication to pioneer new methods of sustainable tourism,” said Jake Kheel. “Our aim continues to be both local and global in that we are working to enrich the local ecology and community and also create scalable methods of sustainable tourism that can be adopted by other organizations worldwide.”

Founded in 1957, the Adrian Awards embraces every segment of the industry, including hotels, airlines, cruise lines, car rental companies, destinations, credit card companies and more. Winners are selected from a field of more than 1,200 entries by senior industry and media experts. For more information, visit www.adrianawards.com.