Ullswater Steamers and Muncaster Castle in Cumbria were just two of the tourism businesses recognised in the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA)’s annual tourism awards held this week.

England’s Northwest Tourism Awards 2004, which took place at Manchester’s Imperial War Museum North on Monday evening, recognise excellence and achievement within the industry. The winners will now go through to the annual Enjoy England Excellence Awards organised by VisitBritain.

Ullswater Steamers won the large visitor attraction award, while Muncaster Castle won the small visitor attraction category.

Other winners included The Samling in Windermere, which won small hotel of the year; Express by Holiday Inn in Liverpool which won the award for excellent customer service in a large hotel; Manchester Art Gallery, which won best tourism website and World of Glass in St Helens, which took the award for tourism website of the year.

Felicity Goodey, chair of the Tourism Forum for England's Northwest, said: "We want more people to come here, spending more money and coming back again and again because they've had such a good time.

“These awards celebrate some of the best of what this region offers, showing visitors the kind of quality they'll find here and encouraging everyone in the industry to raise their standards to compete with the best." Details: www.nwda.co.uk