Held annually, the Awards of Excellence celebrate and acknowledge tourism businesses in the region who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and success throughout the year.

Winners in a record eighteen categories were announced during the evening including three special individual awards. Each winner is now an automatic finalist in the NSW Tourism Awards held in November.

“We are delighted to see an increase in category winners, up from fifteen in 2009 to twenty this year. This will represent increased exposure for our region at the State awards,” said Blue Mountains Lithgow and Oberon Tourism (BMLOT) Chairman Randall Walker.

“We thank all awards entrants for making the effort to enter and hope they enjoy the benefits that flow from the awards submission process which involves an assessment of key aspects of their business,” he added.

The awards represented a great night for the Oberon area with Jenolan Caves winning an outstanding four categories including Tourist Attractions and Adventure Tourism.

Jenolan Caravan Park also enjoyed a successful evening being awarded the Tourist and Caravan Parks category for the second year in a row.

Justine Cooper - Director, Marketing and Communications, Tourism NSW attended the evening and screened the current TV advertisement based on the new NSW branding “See where it takes you”.

The new positioning of the State, based on the concept that NSW is full of ‘remarkable journeys’ will be a good fit with the Greater Blue Mountains Drive and Tablelands Way.

Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, Major Sponsor of the awards for a second year, won New Tourism Development for its luxury eco resort in the Wolgan Valley.

General Manager Joost Heymeijer was thrilled with the win, thanked his team and identified the “significant injection into the regional economy by the project, including two and a half thousand jobs during the construction phase”.

He went on to state with good humour “This is the only category we were able to enter this year as all others are based on the requirement to be trading for a full financial year. Next year you can expect more entries from us in more categories.”