We have known for a long time that our Park President Dan Decker is tall in Texas. But now his peers at the Texas Travel Industry Association’s (TTIA) have noticed as well.
This week TTIA awarded Dan their “Tall in Texas” award at the Texas Travel Summit. TTIA is the advocate organization for the travel industry in Texas. Their Tall in Texas Award, “. . .is given to an individual nominated from the membership for their outstanding contributions to travel and tourism and to TTIA.”
Dan was nominated for the award by Paul Schultz, Vice President of Hospitality for The San Luis Resort, Spa and Conference Center/Landry’s Inc. and Nanci Liles, Executive Director, Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Nanci was impressed by Dan’s innovation and commitment to the greater good, “His leadership in efficient water and energy use is enough, in my book, to elevate SeaWorld to a class of its own. Dan was also one of the first to embrace social media. He has also implemented programs for free admission to military and their families and Texas teachers just to mention a few.”
Paul lauded Dan’s leadership, “He is a strong advocate of the TTIA leadership program which works toward growing future leaders in the travel industry. Dan consistently shares his knowledge of the travel industry with our organization, for example, he has shared green initiatives such as water conservation.”
Some fun little-known-until-now things about Dan came out during the award announcement where he was introduced by one of our former team members, Fran Stephenson:
- Dan started working in hospitality at a ski resort in Jackson Hole
- He used to be a model
- He’s volunteered as a firefighter
- He began working for SeaWorld in 1990 in the Food Service Department
- He launched the Believe show
- He’s the one you can thank for more time to visit SeaWorld with a longer operating season
He is also approachable. You can connect with Dan on Twitter @DanJDecker. You can learn more about Dan by watching his video below that we made when we launched this blog.
Photo L to R: Corrine Brindley, SeaWorld San Diego, Dan Decker, SeaWorld San Antonio and Dwight Driskill, SeaWorld San Antonio
