Businesses up for tourism nod

THE state’s top tourism offerings have been named with the finalists for this year’s Victorian Tourism Awards announced.

More than 90 nominees have been unveiled with four of them Ballarat-based organisations.

Ballarat Begonia Festival, Ballarat Heritage Festival, Ballarat Wildlife Park, and Kryal Castle are all up for awards, with the latter’s CEO, Bart Hamilton saying the nominations are a source of good recognition.

“A lot of it’s very reputational,” he said. “It’s quite a coveted award. You have to score a certain amount based on their scoring system.

“It puts you up in that upper echelon. Sovereign Hill’s won it a few times, Melbourne Zoo, Royal Botanical Gardens, all cracking attractions.

“Just to be among those nominated is a nice touch for our team.”

Mr Hamilton said Kryal Castle sees about 125,000 visitors each year.

The medieval attraction was previously a finalist during last year’s awards, and won silver in the Tourist Attractions category in 2019.

Ballarat Wildlife Park’s history with the awards includes receiving bronze in the Tourist Attractions category in 2018, and owner Greg Parker said it’s validating to be nominated.

“We’ve been operating for 40 years now and it shows we’ve moved from humble beginnings into an internationally significant attraction for this region,” he said.

“We’re a small park but fairly sophisticated in terms of our animal husbandry. As a tourism venue, I think we pride ourselves on customer service.

“It’s a nice feeling for our team that have worked so hard to reach the standards we’re at now.”

Led by the Victorian Tourism Industry Council, the nominees are being judged by a panel of 40 industry representatives.

The winners will be announced during a gala event on Thursday 30 November at Crown’s Palladium in Melbourne.