Claire Lambert the Investment & Research Manager for East Midlands Tourism thanked KC Jones conference&events Ltd for their delivery of the awards "We'd just like to thank the whole team at KC Jones for providing a really fantastic service. With your help and support we managed to make the Excellence in England Awards 2010 a fabulous evening enjoyed by all. Your input and guidance really helped to take the stress out of delivering the event and allowed us to really enjoy the evening for ourselves. Thanks again for all your hard work."

The best tourism businesses in the region were rewarded at the 2010 East Midlands Tourism Enjoy England Excellence Awards.  Awards were presented in eighteen categories, including one for Outstanding Contribution to Tourism which was awarded to Chatsworth in Derbyshire. The Duke of Devonshire said "Chatsworth is an exceptional organisation with a passionate team dedicated to welcoming our visitors and maintaining high standards. All the staff and volunteers who work here are delighted this work has been recognised".

Organised by East Midlands Tourism, emda's tourism arm, the awards celebrate the commitment to excellence and quality shown by tourism businesses in the region.  Categories ranged from Best Hotel and Best Bed and Breakfast to Tourism Event and Think Family with gold, silver and bronze prizes awarded in each category.  The ceremony took place at the Roundhouse in Derby, and was attended by over 230 people.

Tourism Director at East Midlands Development Agency, Ruth Hyde commented "All the participants in the awards were very strong and it gets more difficult each year to choose a winner.  It's a great achievement to get to the final stages given the quality of the entrants this year.  The standard was such that mystery shoppers who visited each finalist were so impressed with what they saw they want to go back and visit some of the businesses as customers.

A number of the gold winners from the regional awards will go forward to the national Enjoy England Awards for Excellence in April 2011.  The 2009 national awards proved a great success for the East Midlands, when the region secured four national gold winners - more than any other region.