BILLINGTON

When he heard he’d been nominated as the World Travel Association’s North American personality of the year and invited to its annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., Robert Billington wasn’t sure he wanted to go.

The dinner was the same night as the dragon boat races in Pawtucket. That’s a major event on the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council’s calendar and, as president, he was expected to be there. Besides, the other nominees were Jay Rasulo, the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts; and Cheryl Hudak, the president of the 20,000-member American Society of Travel Agencies.

“I called to make sure,” Billington said. “I mean, we’re not in that category.”

But his staff insisted he go. So he did, and that meant when they opened the gold envelope to read the winner of the association’s first personality of the year award, Billington was there to hear his name.

“I still can’t get over that they chose me,” Billington said.

Graham E. Cooke, president and founder of the World Travel Awards, said North America is generally regarded by the rest of the world as an industry barometer and a region where new industry trends and strategies often appear first.

Billington was chosen because of the Blackstone tourism council’s efforts to combine historic preservation, environmentalism and commercial development into an economic development strategy.

“Robert Billington is to be congratulated,” Cooke said. “His exceptional input was recognized and he joins a cast of winners worldwide who have been honored in World Travel Awards’ regional ceremonies.”

Billington was careful to deflect the honor to his council staff and board.

“It’s their award as far as I’m concerned,” Billington said. “It was one man maybe 25 years ago. Not now.”

“He’s an outside-the-box thinker,” Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce President John Gregory said. “But he’s also an executer. A lot of people are one or the other. He’s both.”

Like a lot of people, Gregory said, when he first heard of Billington’s ideas of river-based tourism development, he doubted.

“I remember when I first met Bob, he said he was going to put a boat on the river, and I said, ‘Oh yeah, sure you are, and when you do, I’ll buy the first sponsorship,’ ” Gregory said. “Sure enough, he showed up with an invoice.”

The council now runs river tours on a 49-seat boat from June to October and offers overnights stays on a British-style canal boat named the Samuel Slater.

The World Travel Association is not the first international tourism organization to cite the Blackstone council’s work. In April, the World Travel and Tourism Council praised the Blackstone council for what it called a coordinated economic development strategy that used tourism, historic preservation and environmentalism as a way to invigorate the region’s mill towns and their aging mills.

“After many years of significant economic, environmental, socio-cultural and historical degradation,” Dr. Eduardo Fayos-Sola, of the World Tourism Organization, said, “thoughtful tourism development and new approaches emerged in the Blackstone Valley to transform this desecrated landscape into an interesting place to live, work and visit.”

Billington calls the council’s approach sustainable tourism. Rather than knocking down whole swaths or neighborhoods to make room for a new project, Billington said, the strategy means finding out what the natural qualities of a community are and then enhancing them.

In the Blackstone Valley, that meant the Blackstone River and its aging mills. It started with volunteer cleanups of litter along the river banks, convincing owners and municipalities to preserve the old mills long enough for them to be converted to housing or other uses, and working with other federal, state and local agencies to build things such as the bike path; and combining conservation and recreation. Make an area a place people will want to visit, even for day, Billington said, and it will become a place people will want to live.

“Culture, history, the environment,” Billington said. “We are strong in that. There is authenticity in that.”

jhill@projo.com