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Monday 1 December 2008

Wilderness camp wins tourism award

Source: thewest.com.au


An Aboriginal-owned wilderness camp in the State’s rugged north was the star of last night’s 2008 WA Tourism Awards.

Kooljaman, located 220km north of Broome at Cape Leveque, won the inaugural Indigenous Tourism award, the Qantas Award for Excellence in Sustainable Tourism and was inducted into the Ecotourism Hall of Fame.

The camp offers a variety of accommodation from beach shelters to ensuite cabins and is jointly owned by surrounding indigenous communities of Djarindjin and One Arm Point.

The remote paradise is popular for swimming, fishing, and snorkelling, and can be accessed by air or four-wheel-drive.

More than 800 people attended the awards last night, held at the Burswood Grand Ballroom and hosted by Tourism Council WA.

Other winners included Augusta Margaret River Tourism Association, which received the Sir David Brand Award for Tourism, and Australia’s North West chairman Ian Laurence, who took out the Sir David Brand medal for an individual.

Tourism Minister Liz Constable said the awards were testament to the vibrancy of WA’s tourism industry and helped instil a sense of pride in all Western Australians.

“In the past year WA attracted 6.7 million visitors, staying over 48 million nights and spending a total of $4.9 billion,” she said.

“These are good results but now the industry’s challenge is to maintain its profitability in the wake of a number of global challenges.”

Major Tourist Attraction and Heritage and Cultural Tourism were awarded to Fremantle Prison, the Meetings and Business Tourism award went to Perth Convention Exhibition Centre and the Tourism Wineries award recognised Sandalford Wines.

PERTH
STEPHANIE PAINTER

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