33rd Northern Ireland Travel & Tourism Awards Launches at The Big Travel Trade Event

4 June 2025

The 33rd Northern Ireland Travel & Tourism Awards has launched at the Big Travel Trade Event with voting now open!

This year’s Awards evening will welcome two new awards and four new sponsors!

Sani Ikos Resorts and the Spanish Tourist Office join the list of sponsors for the first time. Both have committed to investing heavily in the province and the support of our local travel agents.

The pre-dinner drinks reception will be hosted by Norwegian Cruise Line, for the first time, who has guaranteed a themed cocktail and a splash of champagne.

Peter Corry Productions will return to kickstart the evening with a show-stopping performance, sponsored by Visit Detroit.

Once again, Jet2holidays will sponsor the evenings entertainment programme. Tourism Ireland returns as hospitality sponsors, with Salou as drink sponsors.

The Awards will also introduce Northern Irish comedian Shane Todd as this years host. Shane hails from Holywood and has just completed his third world tour with show, ‘Full House’, – Shane‘s eleventh hour. The last few years has seen Shane sell out venues in the UK, Ireland, Australia, USA, Canada, and the Middle East. Shane holds the record for a solo performer in Belfast’s legendary Grand Opera House with a twenty-six-night run.

The NI Travel & Tourism Awards aim to reflect the changes and developments in the industry. To continue this, NI Travel News, the organisers of the Travel & Tourism Awards, has introduced two new awards.

This includes ‘Best NI Accommodation provider 2025’. This award is open to all Tourism NI Certified accommodation offering including (but not limited to) hotels, guest houses, self-catering and bed & breakfast (B&B).

Sponsored by the Spanish Tourist Office, the ‘Best Sustainability Award 2025′ will also be introduced at this year’s Awards.

This new Sustainability Award identifies the travel companies, who are developing more sustainable models of service provision that lead to better use of resources, nurture healthy ecosystems, advance environmental wellbeing and/or tackle climate change. This new category will have an expert judging panel from outside the industry, drawn from some of our largest sustainability organisations. The award is open for submissions from all areas of the travel industry.

The Awards are only made possible with the continued support of the generous sponsors. Thank you to Stena Line, Travel Solutions, Visit Dubai, Silversea Cruises, British Airways who return as category sponsors, and with the introduction of Sani Ikos Resorts – our brand-new category sponsor.

Get involved – nominate your top Tourist Attraction, Visitor Information Centre, Travel Consultant and Travel Agents and you could win one of four great short break hotel/accommodation prizes.

The prizes on offer include an overnight stay in one of four top hotels across the province – the Slieve Donard Hotel, the Titanic Hotel, the Dunadry Hotel and the Ballygally Castle Hotel. For the chance to win a £100 voucher to a restaurant of you choice, nominate your favourite Accommodation Provider.

Revealing that this year’s Awards will take place on Friday 10th October at the iconic Slieve Donard Hotel, Jonathan Adair of NI Travel News said:

“This year has been a great start for all of us, and we have a lot to celebrate.

The awards are always about making memories and I hope we will create some great ones on the 10th October.”

Voting is now open on the NI Travel News website – www.nitravelnews.com/competitions and will also be available in the June edition of Northern Ireland Travel News.

Contact Nora Hanna at the Slieve Donard to book your room now – nhanna@slievedonard.co.uk

Tables of 10 are available to book now – contact jonathan@nitravelnews.com.

VOTE NOW!

The full list of Awards for the 2025 NI Travel and Tourism Awards in Association are:

Category 1 Sponsored by Stena Line