With a total of 15 Award categories, including 'Sports Tourism', 'Best Tourism Experience' and 'Business Tourism', the Tourism ExSEllence Awards are the premier awards for the tourism industry in the South East and are managed by Tourism South East.

Judges look for excellence, quality and innovation, covering all aspects of the business from customer service, sales & marketing, to training & development for staff. The Judge of the Business Tourism category, was clearly impressed by the Kent Conference Bureau's 'professional and enthusiastic team’, praising the 'exceptional service and easy-to-use website’.

Robert Collier, chief executive of Tourism South East, comments on this year’s successes, "It's a delight to see such a high standard of entry – it gets better every year. We look forward to seeing more success as the winners go forward to the national Enjoy England Awards for Excellence in 2009."

Simon Calder hosted the Awards Ceremony. One of the worlds most travelled journalists, Simon is recognised as a consumer champion and respected ambassador for the Tourism Industry. He has been the Travel Editor of The Independent since 1994 and amongst his many TV and Radio credits, he is contributor to the BBC1 Holiday Programme and shortly to become presenter of
the BBC2’s Travel Show.

Kent Conference Bureau has been an outstanding success in attracting events into the county through the support it provides to conference and event organisers, and in working with Kent’s venue providers to best leverage their products for this competitive marketplace.