Two tourist attractions and a hotel in Perthshire have been recognised as the best in the UK by customers from North America.
Atholl Palace Hotel scooped an award for Best Hotel Accommodation by Irish coach tour operator, CIE Tours.
Visit Awards of Excellence were also handed out to Blair Castle and Blair Athol Distillery.
CIE Tours gives accolades to hospitality businesses which have received a greater than 90 per cent customer satisfaction rating over the previous year.
The company gives special recognition to the best performing tourism provider in its 12 categories.
Atholl Palace Hotel was judged best in the UK by more than 10,000 visitors who CIE brought to the UK in 2022, receiving the Gold Award as category winner.
The awards are based on feedback on around 300 providers of accommodation, dining, tours and attractions from throughout the UK, with merit awards being given to all venues achieving over 90 per cent in guest satisfaction.
The providers with the best satisfaction score in each category are recognised with a Gold Award.
An Atholl Palace Hotel spokesperson said: “We are so pleased to announce that Atholl Palace Hotel has won the Gold Award for Best Hotel Accommodation in Britain, as decided by our guests.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful CIE guests for their continued support and brilliant ratings.”
Since the 1990s, CIE Tours’ offerings have included Scotland and the rest of the UK, with combination tours of Scotland/UK and Ireland becoming some of the most popular in recent years.
In 2022, demand for combined tours of Scotland and Ireland exceeded other destinations, reaching 2019 levels and 2023 is already on course to exceed this benchmark.
Stephen Cotter, chief operations officer of CIE Tours said: “We are delighted to report a strong recovery in our Scottish and UK tours since international travel reopened following the pandemic.
“I want to acknowledge the resilience of our tourism partners who, having had a very difficult few years, enthusiastically welcomed back our visitors once restrictions were lifted.
“Their professionalism is reflected in the feedback from our visitors with overall satisfaction levels in 2022 only slightly less than 2019, despite a very challenging year for travel.
“We are very encouraged by the pipeline of bookings for the coming year, particularly in Scotland, which are ahead of expectations, and we look forward to ensuring that our partners and our host communities continue to benefit.”
