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The Tweed region is celebrating a GOLD win, a Silver award and finalist recognition at the Australian Tourism Awards, held in Darwin on Friday 15 March:
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GOLD: The Tweed Tourism Company - Tourism Marketing & Campaigns
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SILVER: Potager - A Kitchen Garden - Tourism Restaurants & Catering Services
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FINALIST: Husk Farm Distillery - Tourism Wineries, Distilleries & Breweries.
The Tweed Tourism Company has taken out the highly coveted GOLD for tourism marketing and campaigns at the prestigious Australian Tourism Awards held in Darwin on Friday 15 March.
Presented by Tourism Australia, the GOLD winning Tweed campaign was awarded as Australia's best tourism marketing for 2023 amongst an impressive national field and ahead of Rockhampton, Queensland (Silver) and Mandurah, Western Australia (Bronze).
The Australian Tourism Awards are the tourism industry's peak national awards and this year saw over 180 leading tourism operators vying for top honours across 26 categories, with more than 1,000 people in attendance from across Australia.
The winning Tweed campaign was a collective body of work aligned with a Covid recovery strategy that included promotion of the new Northern Rivers Rail Trail, a Slow Road to Tyalgum drive campaign, hosting of the Australian Society of Travel Writer's Convention and Australia's first Wellness Tourism Summit.
The recovery strategy aligned with Tourism Australia's THRIVE 2030, which aims to achieve pre-COVID levels of domestic visitation by the end of 2024, and incorporated a cooperative campaign in partnership with Destination NSW under its Feel New brand.
Also celebrating on the night were Potager - A Kitchen Garden, taking out SILVER for Tourism Restaurants & Catering Services and Husk Farm Distillery, a FINALIST in the Tourism Wineries, Distilleries & Breweries category.
At a state level, the Tweed was the most awarded region outside of Sydney, with the capital city's 4 finalists taking a Gold and Silver, along with 2 category finalists.
Sally Scott, General Manager of The Tweed Tourism Company, said being recognised on the national stage was an incredibly proud moment and a shining reflection of the region's collective efforts.
"This exciting GOLD win at the national level is a true celebration of the hard work, innovation and tenacity of the Tweed's amazing tourism operators and the strength of our great partnership with Tweed Shire Council," Ms Scott said.
"For our Tweed marketing campaigns to be recognised as the best in Australia amongst so many stellar destinations and products is a humbling acknowledgement and one that affirms the Tweed's place as one of the country's leading tourism regions.
"We are incredibly proud of the brilliant Tweed tourism businesses that were also recognised at this year's Australian Tourism Awards with Potager awarded Silver and Husk Farm Distillery a Finalist, each in their respective categories.
"The exceptional results for the Tweed are a shared accolade for all of our remarkable tourism businesses who navigated through the many challenges of Covid, evolved their product and who continue to work hard every day to deliver incredible visitor experiences."
Mayor of Tweed Shire Chris Cherry said the outstanding results at the Australian Tourism Awards were testament to the Tweed's proactive tourism industry, its compelling visitor experiences and impactful consumer marketing campaigns.
"The extended state border closures during COVID-19, along with severe flooding in 2022, were very difficult times for our region, but these challenges galvanised our tourism partners, The Tweed Tourism Company and local operators to develop a strategic response that supported the community through recovery," Cr Cherry said.
"We are so proud of these outstanding results and, in particular, I congratulate The Tweed Tourism Company for bringing home GOLD in the highly competitive Tourism Marketing & Campaigns category.
"The fantastic success of our local businesses at these national awards, also including Potager and Husk Farm Distillery, is such great recognition of all the hard work, creativity and resilience of the Tweed's tourism industry and a moment of immense pride for the Tweed business community."
Managed by the Australian Tourism Industry Council, the Australian Tourism Awards are an annual celebration for all tourism businesses across the country to gather together and recognise outstanding achievements in customer service, innovation and resilience.
