Donald Contursi, Certified Incentive Specialist (CIS), has been named to Connect Corporate magazine’s 2019 list of “40 Under 40.” Donald Contursi is founder and president of Lip Smacking Foodie Tours, the premier culinary walking tour in Las Vegas, showcasing the city’s highest-rated restaurants and enabling guests to have VIP access to the best seats in the house.
The honor highlights the top young professionals in the events industry. Connect Corporate is a national, B2B magazine that provides resources and ideas to professionals and planners in the meetings and events industry. Nominations were received from Contursi’s peers across the country, then reviewed and evaluated by the Connect staff based on references, industry involvement and other resources.
Prior to creating the award-winning, TripAdvisor 5.0-rated company, Contursi spent a decade working in Las Vegas’ bustling hospitality industry at the finest restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip, including STK Las Vegas, Gordon Ramsay Steak and Social House.
A passionate, creative and ambitious professional, Contursi made the most of his restaurant career by acquiring a wealth of culinary knowledge and connections with the most talented individuals in the industry. Consequently, he was able to ensure Lip Smacking Foodie Tours quickly emerged as one of the top culinary experiences in Las Vegas.
With the launch of Lip Smacking Foodie Tours, Contursi immediately immersed himself in the corporate meetings and incentives industry, earning the designation of Certified Incentive Specialist. He discovered how Lip Smacking Foodie Tours can help meeting planners differentiate and enhance their clients’ itineraries by offering an alternative to a typical high-end restaurant experience. Lip Smacking Foodie Tours offers individuals and groups up to 250 a culinary experience that is dynamic, delicious, educational, conducive to networking and—above all—entertaining. In recognition of his successful contributions to the corporate meetings industry, Contursi was named 2018 Meetings Trendsetter by Meetings Today.
Lip Smacking Foodie Tours is the premier culinary walking tour in Las Vegas, showcasing the city’s highest-rated restaurants and enabling guests to have VIP access to the best seats in the house. Each Lip Smacking tour includes a knowledgeable, entertaining guide who takes guests on a leisurely excursion on foot to three to four restaurants, with each restaurant presenting an array of its most distinctive dishes for all to enjoy. In addition to indulging in each venue’s most outstanding dishes and cocktails, other Lip Smacking perks include meet-and-greets with chefs, tours of the kitchen as well as fascinating trivia about the restaurants and resorts featured on the tour. Perfect for everyone from solo travelers to corporate groups of up to 250, Lip Smacking Foodie Tours offers an extraordinary fine-dining experience unmatched by any single restaurant. Since their debut in 2015, the tours have become Las Vegas’ highest-rated dining experience, earning numerous accolades including “Best Tour,” “Best Food Tour,” “Best Fine Dining,” “Best Brunch” and “Best Date Night Spot” by the Las Vegas Review-Journal; “Best Food/Beverage Tour Operations (Land)” by The World Food Travel Association; “Best Tour” by INVEGAS magazine and “Best New Tour” by Thrillist. Lip Smacking Foodie Tours also ranks among TripAdvisor’s “Top 3” tours in Las Vegas and as the No. 1 tour on Yelp. In 2019, Lip Smacking Foodie Tours expanded to San Jose, California’s Santana Row. For more info, visit vegasfoodietour.com.
Connect is a leader in the meetings, events, travel and tourism industry. Specializing in destination marketing, the company produces digital programs, online and mobile solutions, meetings business and travel magazines, tradeshows and consumer events, travel guides for newspapers and leisure magazines, and destination information which is distributed through broadcast and custom programs. Connect, formerly known as Collinson Media & Events, introduced the popular Marketplace format to the meetings industry and now produces national shows for meeting planners in the corporate, expo, sports, diversity, association and faith sectors as well as other state- and region-specific meetings and hospitality-focused events. For more info, visit connectmeetings.com.
