Best of Yorkshire – the awards

Finalists for this year’s White Rose Awards have been announced by Welcome to Yorkshire: an extra-long list this year because of the record-breaking number of entries and their high quality.

JORVIK Viking Festival

The 90 finalist tourism businesses will discover who comes out top in each of the 16 categories on 4 October at a gala ceremony at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate. The unenviable task of judging such a quality line-up falls to a panel of independent judges, and all winners from the national categories are automatically entered into the national Enjoy England Awards for Excellence 2010 (winners announced next April).

The Black Swan Tearoom & Patisserie

The award categories range from Small and Large Hotels of the Year to Best Visitor Experience and the Access for All Tourism Award. There is also a new category this year: Visitor Information Award.

A couple of BRITAIN magazine favourites are among the finalists for the Small Hotel of the Year: Hotel du Vin & Bistro York (below) and The Feversham Arms Hotel & Verbena Spa while the Crown Spa Hotel at Scarborough is up for the Large Hotel of the Year award. One of our favourite tearooms, The Black Swan Tearoom & Patisserie in Helmsley (right) is up for Taste of Yorkshire Award and this year’s JORVIK Viking Festival (top) is up for Tourism Event of the Year.

Hotel du Vin York

For information on the White Rose Awards go to www.whiteroseawards.com. To find out more about the entrants and to plan your own trip to Yorkshire, go to www.yorkshire.com.