Recognising the value tourism brings to country towns and communities across Australia, the awards showcase the diversity of regional destinations across the nation.
Echuca-Moama Tourism chief executive officer Kathryn Mackenzie was proud of all of the local operators and visitors who made the win possible.
“We worked really hard over the past few years,” Ms Mackenzie said.
“The pandemic was really challenging, but this is affirmation that we’ve come out of the pandemic fairly well.”
Echuca came second to Bendigo, which claimed the gold, and Heathcote claimed bronze.
“We were second against some really big destinations across Victoria, so we’re pretty proud, and chuffed that Bendigo took the top prize, Heathcote got the bronze, and Rochester was a finalist,” Ms Mackenzie said.
“For our end of the world, it’s a pretty pleasing result.
“There were 11 finalists in our category, and we had the big destinations of Bendigo, Geelong, Ballarat, Mornington.
“We’ve done very well up against such big centres.”
Ms Mackenzie said that the award was also an acknowledgement of the hard times and challenges faced by border communities over the course of the pandemic, and the support was felt by the representatives at the awards.
“There was genuine support, it was quite effusive,” she said.
“I really want to thank my team and thank all the operators because there were three components to this: we had to do a story video, we had to do an itinerary of the region, and we had to have customer reviews.
“Across those three elements, everyone played their role: the consumer, the industry and ourselves, and we pulled it together and told the story.
“Everyone should feel proud because we’ve all played a part.”
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