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The Tweed's tourism excellence was on show last night with three GOLD award wins at the state's most coveted industry awards event, the NSW Tourism Awards, held in Sydney.
Taking out the top honours were Potager - A Kitchen Garden, winning for a second year running in the Tourism Restaurants & Catering Services category; Husk Farm Distillery in Tourism Wineries, Distilleries, and Breweries category; and The Tweed Tourism Company awarded Gold for Tourism Marketing & Campaigns.
Also recognised at the gala awards event was Tweed Eco Cruises, taking out Silver in the Tour & Transport Operators category and Berger Houseboat Holidays, a Finalist in the Unique Accommodation category.
Sally Scott, General Manager of The Tweed Tourism Company, said that the sweep of outstanding wins on the night were a celebration of the hard work, innovation and tenacity of the region's tourism businesses.
"We are incredibly proud of all the Tweed tourism businesses that were recognised at this year's NSW Tourism Awards and, along with Potager and Husk Farm Distillery, were thrilled to be recognised with a GOLD Award on the night," Ms Scott said.
"The exceptional results for the Tweed are a great celebration of our remarkable tourism operators who continue to overcome challenges, evolve their product and work hard every day to deliver consistently high-quality visitor experiences.
"Our Tweed winners and finalists should be proud of achieving excellence not only for their own businesses but for also representing the whole region at a state level and helping to lift the profile and reputation of our collective tourism industry."
The GOLD winning Tweed marketing campaign was a collective body of work that was developed in alignment with Phase One: Recovery of Tourism Australia's THRIVE 2030 strategy.
The destination recovery marketing strategy aimed to achieve pre-Covid levels of domestic overnight and day trip visitation by the end of 2024 and included promotion of the new Northern Rivers Rail Trail, a Slow Road to Tyalgum campaign, hosting of the Australian Society of Travel Writer's Convention and Australia's first Wellness Tourism Summit.
Celebrating Potager winning Gold for the second year in a row, Peter Burr, owner said the win was a wonderful validation for all the hard work of the Potager team in delivering exceptional visitor experiences.
"We love to showcase the Tweed, this beautiful part of the world we call home, so I'm exceptionally proud to be in the company of our gold-winning mates at Husk and The Tweed Tourism Company and Silver winners Tweed Eco Cruises – what a fantastic result for the region and here's to more people discovering us," Mr Burr said.
Fellow GOLD award winners, Husk Farm Distillery said that the win was very humbling and the whole Husk team was excited to be recognised for their work.
"This win is a testament to the hard work and vision of our entire team at Husk Farm. We hope this award will give us more opportunity to bring people together on our farm in the beautiful Tweed Valley and showcase the region, our unique Ink Gin and the sustainable connection between Husk Rum and the land."
Mayor of Tweed Shire Chris Cherry was thrilled with the results and said the accolades were testament to the quality of tourism operators in the Tweed, supported by the outstanding consumer campaigns and events delivered by Tweed Tourism Co as Council's tourism partners.
"Tourism in the Tweed is thriving and the success of Tweed businesses at the NSW Tourism Awards are testament to that," Cr Cherry said.
"Visitors are flocking here to experience the quality attractions we have to offer, like the Northern Rivers Rail Trail – which has already exceeded 100,000 visitors in its first seven months – the newly-opened Uki Mountain Bike Park and the Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre which is now hosting one of the world's most famous artworks by Claude Monet.
"This is a moment of immense pride for the Tweed business community and those lucky enough to call the Tweed home and I congratulate all the winners."
The NSW Tourism Awards are the tourism industry's peak awards, recognising and promoting excellence in tourism across 27 business categories, including individual excellence categories and the Judges' Tourism Star Awards, honouring outstanding resilience and innovation.
Managed by the NSW Tourism Industry Council in partnership with Destination NSW, the awards are an annual celebration for all tourism businesses across the state to gather together and recognise outstanding achievements in customer service, innovation and resilience.
As a national program, Gold Medal Award winners of select categories at the state level automatically receive entry to compete at the Australian Tourism Awards.
The 2024 Australian Tourism Awards Gala will be held on Friday 15 March in the Northern Territory with Potager, Husk Farm Distillery and The Tweed Tourism Company all travelling to Darwin to represent the Tweed on the national stage.
