Welsh Icons News | Record entries in Welsh Tourism Awards

A record number of Welsh tourism businesses have entered this year’s National Tourism Awards for Wales, with 53 organisations reaching the finals.

Almost 400 applications were made, with 16 awards up for grabs including Best Family Day Out, Best Visitor Experience, Sense of Place, Digital Marketing and Sustainable Tourism.

Visit Wales, in partnership with the Wales Tourism Alliance and in commercial partnership with Quadrant, is staging the National Tourism Awards to recognise the value of the tourism industry to Wales and to reward those who offer a high quality, warm Welsh welcome to visitors.

Welsh Assembly Government Heritage Minister, Alun Ffred Jones, said:

“Not only was the amount of entries staggering but the quality was quite overwhelming too. The last awards were held in 2007 and we’ve reinvigorated the competition and categories to reflect the diverse range of tourism businesses we have in Wales as well as changes to the political and social landscape over the past three years.

“All the companies who entered the awards can be proud of the fine job they are doing to promote Welsh tourism. Without them, we wouldn’t have a world class product to compete in such a highly competitive market.”

A panel of independent judges whittled down the entries for the final round, where experts in each category reviewed and scored all those shortlisted to reach a final decision.

Winners will be announced at the awards’ ceremony on Thursday 21 October at the Vale Hotel, Golf & Spa Resort in Cardiff, hosted by TV presenter Sarra Elgan.

Chris Osborne, chair of the Wales Tourism Alliance, said:

“These awards recognise the importance of the tourism industry to the Welsh economy. We have a great deal to be proud of and the awards give us an opportunity to showcase the very best that Wales has to offer.

“With visitors becoming ever more discerning and more people choosing to stay closer to home for their holidays, the quality of our product becomes an increasingly important selling point and one that will bring visitors to us time and time again.”

A number of businesses have come on board as sponsors for this year’s awards including Visit Britain, Wales the True Taste, Vale Resort, Carbon Trust, Capital Region Tourism, Tourism Partnership Mid Wales, Tourism Partnership North Wales, South West Wales Tourism Partnership, Millennium Stadium, UWIC, Cadw, Wales Tourism Alliance, Careers Wales, Fine Wines Direct and Gower Cottage Brownies.

Finalists are (in no particular order):

Best Place to Stay (Serviced – Large)