Tourism South East (TSE) announced that a record number of tourism businesses from the South East have reached the finals of the National Enjoy England Awards for Excellence 2006 – a result not bettered by any other UK region!

Winchester Tourist Information Centre (TIC), Tylney Hall Hotel - Rotherwick, Sandy Balls Holiday Centre - New Forest, Waddesdon Manor - Aylesbury and Kevin Cook, Sargeant from The Guildhall (Sandwich Town Council) are going head to head with other short listed UK tourism products in a bid for gold.

Known as the tourism ‘Oscars’, the National Enjoy England Awards for Excellence 2006 are organised by VisitBritain and sponsored by the Caravan Club. This year there are 12 categories; Large Hotel of the Year (over 35 bedrooms), Small Hotel of the Year (under 50 bedrooms), Self-catering Holiday of the Year, Bed & Breakfast of the Year, Caravan Holiday Park of the Year, TIC of the Year, Large Visitor Attraction of the Year (over 100,000 visitors), Small Visitor Attraction of the Year (under 100,000 visitors), Business Tourism Award, Outstanding Customer Service Award, Taste of England Award and Best Tourism Experience of the Year.

After a rigorous assessment by a board of specialist tourism industry judges, the finalists were chosen from over 100 regional winners from England’s nine regional tourism organisations*. England Marketing Advisory Board Chairman Hugh Taylor said: “These finalists have been chosen for leading the way in terms of innovation whilst maintaining quality and excellence in their field. Any holidaymaker can be confident they will enjoy a truly wonderful experience if they visit any one of these finalists.”

Judith Barratt, Head of Strategic Partnerships and Communications at TSE said, “We are delighted that five of our regional Tourism ExSEllence Award winners have made it through to the national finals. The competition at regional level was particularly intense and as a result our judges are confident that the superb quality and attention to detail demonstrated by these finalists will result in a record number of “medals” for the South East.”

The winners will be announced on 20th April at a national awards ceremony held at Madame Tussauds in London.