For over 20 years, the prestigious Destination North East England Tourism Awards have shined a light on the area’s top hotels, attractions, dining spots and people. For 2025’s edition, three new categories, exclusive to North East England were introduced to celebrate even more of the region’s visitor economy.
One of those new categories, the Tourism Festival and Event award, is testing how well the finalists can galvanise the support of the community around them, with the winner decided by a public vote – the first time the fate of a Tourism Awards category has been decided by the public.
Voting has been open for a little over two weeks, with the final chance to show support for the four finalists fast approaching on 12th February 2025 at 5pm. Thousands of people from across the North East have already cast their vote, with organisers encouraging anyone who has experienced the finalists’ events to have their say before it’s too late. The winner of the new category will be announced alongside 18 other awards, after a rigorous judging process whittled down hundreds of entries.
Voting is conducted online and takes a matter of seconds at https://link.destinationnortheastengland.co.uk/vote
Referred to as the local industry’s ‘Oscars’ – the Destination North East England Tourism Awards will once again return to Newcastle’s Civic Centre for a glitzy ceremony on 20th March during the national English Tourism Week celebration and will feature a specially curated banquet of local produce. The awards welcome back its headline sponsor, Gateshead based Bidfood, one of the UK’s leading foodservice providers, who have a wealth of experience supplying the tourism and hospitality sector from independent hotels through to some of the region’s most revered venues.
They are joined by Newcastle College, renowned for their industry-embedded hospitality and tourism education programmes, who have come on board as event sponsors.
Students from the College’s culinary and hospitality courses will get the opportunity to gain invaluable work experience at the event alongside learners from Gateshead College – working alongside the venue’s teams and events professionals to gain an insight into the delivery of large-scale formal events.
We are delighted to be the headline sponsor the North East England Tourism Awards this year and cannot wait to celebrate the success of our great region. People are at the heart of everything we do in Bidfood so it is hugely important for us to recognise the huge contribution tourism and hospitality makes to the North East and the incredible opportunities it creates for the region, its visitors and its residents.
Our role as an anchor institution of the North East is to develop the region’s future and current workforce, and we work closely with partners like NGI and local employers to prepare our students for their future career. The North East England Tourism Awards are always a fantastic opportunity for our learners to gain new skills and experience. We are proud to continue our support of the event and we’re looking forward to another fantastic celebration of our region and the businesses and people at the heart of it.
The North East England Tourism Awards are a perfect example of the power of coming together as a sector to shine a light on the world-class visitor experience offer we have here in the North East. Through Destination North East England we are working collaboratively with our delivery partners Visit County Durham and Visit Northumberland and in partnership with the North East Combined Authority and all seven local authority partners to unlock the potential of our visitor economy. I am delighted that Bidfood and Newcastle College are joining us to celebrate our wonderful industry. Best of luck to all of our finalists.
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