Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards to celebrate tourism sector's successes

The Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards, which launches this week, celebrates the best tourism businesses in the Highlands.

Highland businesses are known for their outstanding hospitality, and the Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards, which take place on November 10, are a chance for those businesses to shine.

The Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards (HITA) also feeds into the national Scottish Thistle Awards, where the crème de la crème across Scotland gather together once a year to celebrate the success of the industry.

The Highlands have shown how successful they are at the Scottish Thistle Awards, with last year’s winners including the new chairman of HITA, Calum Ross of the Loch Melfort Hotel, who received the Silver Thistle award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to tourism.

“This last year has been another exciting one for tourism and hospitality businesses right across our region, with record numbers coming to the Highlands and Islands to get a unique experience of our wonderful homeland,” said Calum.

"We should be ready to celebrate how proud we are about all of our successes, big and small, when we come together at this year's Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards."

You don't need to have a tourism business to get involved – you can nominate your favourite experience or a business you feel deserves special recognition at this year's Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards by visiting the website between now and April 16. Any business nominated will be contacted and encouraged to enter the awards.

HITA is once again being backed by Royal Bank of Scotland as the headline sponsor.

This year's awards ceremony will be held at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness on November 10, and will be another chance to shine a spotlight on the region's best tourism and hospitality businesses.

A new website has been launched at www.hita-awards.com where you can nominate, enter or find out more.

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