Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens and Seaham Hall scoop gold at North East Tourism Awards

The city centre attraction beat stiff competition from Alnwick Garden, Beamish and Bamburgh Castle in the annual competition which celebrates the region’s wealth of tourism attractions.

Although the tourism industry has ground to a halt due to the pandemic, the awards ceremony went ahead virtually to support the industry in these challenging times.

Other local winners include Seaham Hall who won the gold award for Small Hotel of the Year and Ramside Hall Hotel who won silver in the Large Hotel of the Year.

During the online event, judges for each category outlined the strengths of the winning applications.

Sarah Green, chief executive at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, who organise the awards, said: “A huge congratulations to this year’s winners and all those who continue to contribute so much to the North East tourism sector.

“Covid-19 is having a devastating impact on the sector but these awards demonstrate the quality of the North East Tourism offer and gives us confidence that once the current situation eases the region will be in a strong place to benefit from a predicted upturn in domestic and day tourism.

“Along with our colleagues in tourism organisations across the North East, we will continue to invest in marketing, with a strong digital and media presence, to ensure that tourists are aware of our fantastic region and have us front of mind when planning for future visits.”

The format of the awards was tweaked this year so that they now align more closely with the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence and reflect innovations across the industry.

Eligible winners of the North East England Tourism Awards will be automatically put forward to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2020.

Each of the shortlisted businesses went through a thorough judging process, focused on experiencing their offer first-hand.

As well as being evaluated by a judging panel made up of industry experts, planned visits by judges or 'mystery shoppers' helped to inform the final decisions.

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