Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards 2024: Sponsors show their support for awards and 17 years of excellence!
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Without our generous sponsors the Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards (HITA) would not happen!
For 17 years they have supported and celebrated excellence, innovation and dedication across our incredible tourism and hospitality industry!
But of course, the awards are not just about trophies.
Each year the bar is raised higher, inspiring and motivating everyone involved to improve, to grow and to deliver an even better experience for visitors and rewarding careers for employees.
And backing this drive for excellence are our many sponsors and partners.
They have continued to support the awards and demonstrated their belief and confidence in you – the local businesses and entrepreneurs that make our tourism and hospitality among the best in the world.
Sponsor The Port of Cromarty Firth, the leading arrival point for visitors travelling to the Highlands by water, is delighted to support the awards again: “The Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards are a key indicator of excellence in the tourism and hospitality industry in the north of Scotland. Just being shortlisted for a HITA award shows a level of professionalism and quality that sets tourists’ minds at ease, safe in the knowledge they will be met with an exemplary visitor experience.
“The Port of Cromarty Firth is proud to play an integral role in bringing visitors to the Highlands, allowing them to venture on to experience all the incredible sights, sounds and flavours of the region. We’re delighted to sponsor the Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards – bringing together the area’s best tourism operators to celebrate each other’s successes and highlight those that are going the extra mile to provide an incredible welcome to visitors to the Highlands.”
Leading laundry services business, Fishers said: “The Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards highlight the excellence that we’ve come to expect from our tourism industry and we can think of no better way to celebrate the very best that Scotland has to offer the world than the HITAs.
“We all recognise that achieving excellence is difficult. But celebrating excellence is absolutely crucial, and the Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards represent a fantastic opportunity for us all to do that. Every finalist at the HITAs should be proud of what they’ve achieved, because to be singled out in this way is a fantastic achievement in itself.”
Garry Munro, director north Scotland at headline sponsor, Royal Bank of Scotland, praised the awards for supporting tourism and hospitality: “It’s great to work with a partner which profiles the brilliant work and valuable role businesses in this sector do for the local and national economy. It is a real opportunity to showcase their resilience and recognise the excellence they deliver. At Royal Bank of Scotland we want to help our customers achieve their goals and we are keen to champion potential and help our communities, customers and businesses thrive; HITA impacts so positively on all these areas, it makes for a great partnership.
“Leisure and tourism is the largest sector by customer numbers that we support in the Highlands and Islands – it’s vital to the area, so it is really important we work together with the right partner to celebrate all that is great in the sector.”
Covering all the regions of the Highlands and Islands; from Argyll in the west, to Moray in the east, and Orkney and Shetland in the north, the annual Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards bring together industry leaders, rising stars, new enterprises and trusted names to celebrate and recognise excellence in the sector.
Winners proceed to the Scottish Thistle Awards national final to represent the region and compete with the best of the rest of the country.
The Highlands & Islands Thistle Awards ceremony will be held at the Kingsmills Hotel, Inverness on October 4.
Entries closed in April and judging is now underway. The shortlist will be announced in July.
Visit www.hita-awards.com
