NYC & Company And Trazzler Enter Final Round Of Urban Oasis $10,000 Writing Contest

NYC & COMPANY AND TRAZZLER ENTER FINAL ROUND OF URBAN OASIS $10,000 WRITING CONTEST

�Contest Culminating on September 18 Allows Entrants to Compete for $10,000 Writer's Residency in New York City�

�Grand Prize Includes Airfare and Accommodations Provided by Sponsors JetBlue Airways and AKA�

New York City (September 14, 2009)�NYC & Company, New York City�s tourism, marketing and partnership organization, today announced the start of Round Three finals of the Trazzler #NYCGO Oasis Writing Contest, which concludes on September 18. The travel experience writing contest began on July 22 and was developed in partnership with the social media outlet, Trazzler, to encourage writers to compete for a Grand Prize of $10,000, round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations for a two-week stay in New York City. Trazzler's editors chose over 200 trips from more than 1,000 entries which best capture the ideal "oasis" to compete in the Round Two semifinals. The ten trips that garnered the most votes during Round Two will now continue to Round Three finals, where Trazzler editor�s will decide the Grand Prize winner, and award writing contracts to the remaining nine finalists.

�The New York City experience remains a strong incentive and draw for visitors all across the globe,� said NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta. �We are pleased to welcome the winner of the Urban Oasis writing contest to NYC, which serves as a �right of passage� for residents and visitors alike. The City�s streets overflow with creative inspiration, which will cater well to the writer in residence who documents the five boroughs.�

Urban Oasis entries have included a variety of experiences, ranging from an urban kayaking expedition in NYC, to a quiet afternoon in a teahouse in China, to the search for the perfect wave on a remote Pacific island in Vanuatu. Throughout the competition, contestants vigorously appealed to voters via Twitter and Facebook in hopes of securing their vote � even vowing to donate half of the $10,000 prize money to a charity in the location they wrote about.

"Our hunch is that the top ten finalists coming out of Round Two will be passionate writers who know how to use social media to rally people behind their cause," said Adam Rugel, CEO of Trazzler.

To view the selected entries from Round Two of the Urban Oasis contest visit www.trazzler.com/contests/nyc/semifinals.
NYC & Company and Trazzler can be followed on Twitter at twitter.com/nycgo and twitter.com/trazzler.

About NYC & Company
NYC & Company is the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for the City of New York, dedicated to maximizing travel and tourism opportunities throughout the five boroughs, building economic prosperity and spreading the positive image of New York City worldwide.

About Trazzler
Trazzler helps you answer one question, "Where should I go?" by recommending trips unique to your location and Travel Personality. Trazzler is a global travel Web site that inspires users with hand-picked �trips� and a revolutionary way to explore. Trazzler is an fbFund (Facebook) grant recipient and it counts the Twitter co-founders among its investors and advisors.

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