Ingenia Holidays South West Rocks park walked away winners at this year’s New South Wales Tourism Awards 2021, celebrating the state’s tourism excellence, innovation and resilience.
The popular Mid-North Coast holiday park took home gold in the Caravan and Holiday Parks category, in recognition of its product innovation, excellence in guest experience, and resilience through the worst that COVID-19, bushfires and floods have thrown at them.
Ingenia Holiday Parks General Manager Tourism Matthew Young said the award is a credit to the unique accommodation offering at the park, as well as the exceptional work of the entire South West Rocks team.
“We are honoured that Ingenia Holidays South West Rocks has been recognised for its top-class accommodation and facilities, as well as excellent customer service through what has been a challenging couple of years for the tourism industry,” Mr Young said.
“Within the past three years, South West Rocks has been impacted by bushfires, flooding and the pandemic, and this award is a wonderful endorsement of our team’s resilience and dedication.
“Through these challenges, we adjusted our operating model to keep our doors open and staff employed, by providing short and long-term accommodation to essential workers and those with limited to no accommodation options who were unable to return home due to border closures.”
Impacted by travel restrictions and immediate cancellations from interstate and intrastate guests, the team has focused on a number of other elements which contributed to the overall success of the South West Rocks holiday park.
Ingenia Holidays South West Rocks Park Manager Alison Evans said that with more people forced to holiday at home, her team worked to accommodate growing travel trends, broadening the park’s appeal to a new audience.
“With people staying close to home, we opened the park to welcome our four-legged friends – something that’s important to a growing number of holidaymakers – and introduced two new accommodation options which have also been welcomed by guests,” Ms Evans said.
“The introduction of our Skydeck villas, a first for the North Coast, has been a hit with families looking for plenty of space with outdoor entertainment areas on both levels.
“Our accessible cabin was designed with the needs of wheelchair users and guests with mobility challenges firmly in mind – there’s plenty of space to navigate around, with an extra large bathroom space and ramp access.
“It’s definitely been a challenging time for the tourism sector, but the Ingenia Holiday Parks team has turned this time into an opportunity to review, adapt and innovate, so when guests could visit us again, we were ready to offer them the best possible experience.”
Ingenia Holidays South West Rocks will now go on to represent NSW at the Australian Tourism Awards to be held next month on the Sunshine Coast.
