VisitEngland Awards for Excellence
2025 Award Winners
The VisitEngland Awards for Excellence are always about more than just trophies and speeches. They are a true celebration of the excellence and innovation - and the people - in the tourism sector.
And the 2025 awards ceremony was a great night out for those from VisitEngland and the representatives from some of the top tourism businesses in the country!
Introduction
About the Awards
Our annual VisitEngland Awards for Excellence champion the very best of the country’s tourism industry – celebrating quality, innovation and customer service. Winning an award shows that your business is among the best in the country, and provides valuable media exposure, business development and networking opportunities.
The awards cycle begins with a series of regional competitions, which feed up to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence. Entering is easy. All you need to do is complete a single application to your local contest. If you win, you’ll automatically proceed to the national contest, which is decided by a team of expert judges.
The highlight of each year is the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence event, where the finest tourism businesses receive the industry’s most coveted accolades.
Scroll down to explore the award categories, meeting all the finalists and how to apply.
In recognition of running a high quality, fair and transparent awards programme, the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence have been accredited with the Awards Trust Mark.
Meet our 2025 sponsors
As one of the UK`s leading and fastest-growing independent holiday let rental agencies, Sykes Holiday Cottages has been supporting holiday home owners for over 30 years.
Sykes Holiday Cottages is one of the best-known travel brands in the UK, having won the British Travel Award for Best Large Holiday Cottage Booking Company for over ten years. We are experts in our field, and we know holiday letting inside out.
Sykes Holiday Cottages are thrilled to sponsor the Self-Catering Accommodation Provider of the Year and the Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Award at the 2025 VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.
Find Sykes Holiday Cottages on: X | facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram
RAW Charging is the leading provider of destination-focused EV charging solutions, partnering with the UK’s top leisure and hospitality brands across the UK.
Through its fully funded, hassle-free infrastructure, RAW provides attractions with a seamless, convenient and reliable charging experience for their visitors.
As sponsor of the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year, at the 2025 VisitEngland Awards for Excellence, RAW is delighted to be celebrating world-class destinations that offer unforgettable visitor experiences while embracing innovation and sustainability.
Ecclesiastical Insurance’s mission is to protect what matters most to people and organisations, with specialist insurance, dedicated expertise, and award-winning service. They help individuals and organisations to protect what matters most to them across a broad range of specialisms including hotels. Their specialism and purpose makes them unique - proudly part of the Benefact Group, they give all available profits to charity and have now donated £250m making them the Directory of Social Change’s - 3rd largest corporate donor across the last decade.
As sponsor the Large Hotel of the Year Award they are delighted to celebrate these fabulous establishments and their hard-working teams.
PASC UK is the largest trade association representing the self-catering/short-term rental sector in the UK. Our work has two threads, providing support through phone and email, regular virtual and in person meetings for our members. All of this is backed up by a website full of resources to help the sector. PASC UK also takes a leading role by working with the Government to mitigate the impact of the wide range of interventions on the sector, to support professional self-caterers through regulatory and taxation changes. We work tirelessly with officials and ministers to demonstrate the impacts of these policies.
We are delighted to be supporting the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence by sponsoring the evening entertainment for the event.
Why apply?
A great PR opportunity
Use your win to attract media attention. We provide a PR toolkit for national winners, as well as the official VisitEngland Awards for Excellence logos to use in your marketing materials.
Apply now
National recognition
Showcase your reputation as one of the best tourism businesses in the country. Core category winners of local competitions are automatically enrolled in the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence – whose winners are promoted by VisitEngland.
A competitive edge
Stand out from your competitors. Being an award winner provides you with a unique and high-profile selling point to promote your business. As an official endorsement, it gives potential customers another reason to book or visit.
Better business practices
All entrants receive feedback on their application from an independent judge, highlighting areas for improvement. Applying for an award is a useful business exercise, allowing you to step back and identify areas for future development.
Reward and motivate your team
Winning an award is a great opportunity to reward your employees for their contribution to the business. It can help you to attract high-quality staff and increase your current team’s motivation, loyalty and pride in their work.
Network at the awards events
Enjoy your success and network with other businesses in your area at the local awards ceremony. National finalists can socialise with the best of the best from around the country at the prestigious VisitEngland Awards for Excellence event.
How to apply
Your journey to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence starts by entering your local competition. The process is easy: simply complete one online application for your regional awards, answering a few key questions and providing links to your online presence and customer reviews.
In the local awards, there are two types of categories:
- Local: these categories are only offered at a regional level.
- Core: these categories feed into the national awards, so all winners are put forward to the main judging panel. These categories use an application form that is consistent across all local competitions. For competitions covering large areas, additional winners may also be eligible to progress.
Eligible winners will be automatically entered into the national awards by their local competition, and judged within their category via the main judging process. Then, finalists are invited to the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence Awards event, where the national winners are announced.
Use the search below to find details of local competitions that are aligned with the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence. Entry dates vary, so double-check the deadline. We recommend signing up to updates from your local awards organisers.
No business is too small to win an award: all applications are judged in context, and it’s the customer experience that really matters.
Find your local tourism awards
Meet the winners of the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2025
The Gold, Silver and Bronze winners for the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2025 were announced on the 4 June at the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange. This was an impressive slate of finalists, making the judging a difficult task. Get a copy of the 2025 programme for more details on all the winners and finalists as well as the event sponsors.
VEAwards2025.pdf
Download your own PDF copy of the full VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2025 programme.
Key dates for your diary
March to February: Local award competitions open for entries (dates vary).
April: After the local awards, winners are put forward to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence, and the judging process begins.
June: Winners are announced and recognised at the official ceremony.
Award categories
Award categories
There is an award category to suit every type of tourism business – from hotels and holiday rentals to attractions, restaurants and museums. In 2025, there will be 16 main categories in total, including New Tourism Business of the Year, Small Hotel of the Year and Taste of England Award – in addition to four special national honours, such as Tourism Superstar.
Frequently asked questions
The local awards are open to tourism businesses that are located in the catchment area of the relevant destination. In order to be forwarded to the national awards, the local competition must be officially linked to and recognised by the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence. All businesses must be directly involved in tourism, contributing to the visitor economy with a significant proportion of business generated by people visiting from outside the local area. Winners of local awards will automatically be entered into the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.
Category-specific eligibility requirements can be found on the awards categories page.
It is free to be put forward to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence. Local competitions may charge an entry fee, although the majority are free or only charge non-members to apply.
To ensure a level playing field, all applicants must succeed in their local competition in order to progress to the national awards. We are liaising with destinations that do not currently offer local awards to offer support in setting up a competition.
If there isn’t a local competition in your area, you can contact your local Destination Management Organisation to let them know that you’re interested in them establishing one that’s officially linked to and recognised by the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.
All applications, regardless of which local competition you are applying for, are judged using the same guidelines. Feedback is given to every entrant on how they can improve their application. Once all entries have been scored, a shortlist is created to help determine the overall local winner.
Some competitions may carry out judging visits to all applicants, while others may visit a selection. Local winners are automatically put forward to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.
More information on the national judging process can be found on the Judging page.
PR toolkit
How to make the most of your win
Winning an industry award doesn’t only confirm the quality of your product – it represents a valuable PR opportunity. This PR toolkit advises you on how to secure and maximise the media coverage around your award win, covering who to contact, what to say, how best to say it and when to say it.
Become a sponsor
Become a sponsor
Access a unique opportunity to reach England’s tourism industry at the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.
The VisitEngland Awards for Excellence have been celebrating the very best of English tourism for more than 30 years.
Becoming a sponsor is a fantastic opportunity to promote your brand to thousands of potential customers in your target market, and be associated with high quality tourism experiences.
To discuss sponsorship opportunities, email [email protected].
