Durham celebrates best ever haul at regional tourism awards

Tourism businesses across Durham are celebrating the county’s best ever haul at last week’s prestigious North East Tourism Awards. Durham scooped gold in seven of the 15 categories at the annual ceremony, a fitting end to an incredible year for the county.

The double-award winning Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition led the way, being named both Tourism Experience of the Year and Tourism Event of the Year.

The event brought one of the world’s greatest books to the county this summer as part of a world-class exhibition that had international appeal.

Rockcliffe Hall Hotel Golf & Spa picked up the award for Large Hotel of the Year while the recently refurbished Seaham Hall Hotel was named Small Hotel of the Year.

The South Causey Inn in the Vale of Durham was named Tourism Pub of the Year. Killhope Mining Museum won the Sustainable Tourism Award and Event Durham, providers of conference and corporate event provision, picked up the Business Tourism Award.

Melanie Sensicle, chief executive of Visit County Durham, said: “I’d like to congratulate all the winners. Their success tops off an incredible year for Durham which has not only seen world-class cultural and sporting events take place in the county but has also seen the destination’s first ever national marketing campaign.”

The campaign saw Durham’s outdoors and heritage promoted through high-profile activity in the spring and autumn including posters on the London Underground.

Lumiere, which had art instillations across Durham City earlier this month, attracted 175,000 people over four evenings. And during the summer the Emirates Durham ICG at Chester-le-Street hosted the fourth Test in the Ashes series, one of the biggest sporting events ever to come to the county.

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