What are the categories?
There are 15 regional and three national categories in this year’s programme. Each celebrates the best in tourism and those providing outstanding visitor experiences.
Celebrating the best in the business
Innovation, collaboration, and sustainable practices
The Scottish Thistle Awards are an important celebration of the best of our tourism and events industry. They recognise those businesses, events, and individuals who work hard to change, innovate, and adapt to create the warm destination and visitor experience that Scotland is famous for.
How to go from nomination to award
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Awards launch and nominations
Before our entries open, nominations are a chance for visitors to have their say on which tourism businesses and events have stood out to them. Once a business has been nominated, we'll let them know and encourage them to enter and be in with a chance of winning a coveted Scottish Thistle Award.
Nominations for our 2025 programme are now closed.
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Entries open
Any tourism business or event - whether they have been nominated or not - can enter the Scottish Thistle Awards.
Entries for our 2025 programme are now closed.
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Shortlisting begins
We have a panel of independent industry experts who judge all entries during May and June.
Find out more about our judging process on our Scottish Thistle Awards website.
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The regional awards take place
Scotland's full of excellent businesses, so we work with regional partners to deliver each award night.
Every autumn, five regional Scottish Thistle Awards take place:
- Central and East Regional Final (delivered by VisitScotland)
- West Regional Final (delivered by VisitScotland)
- Find out more about the Highland and Islands Tourism Awards (HITA) on hita-awards.com
- Find out more about the Aberdeen City and Shire Tourism Awards (ACSTA) on actsa.co.uk
- Find out more about the South of Scotland Thistle Awards at ssdalliance.com
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Celebrating the national final
Winners from each regional award ceremony progress to our national Scottish Thistle Awards final which last year was held in Glasgow on the 21 November 2024. At the national final, the overall winner is announced for each category as well as our Silver Thistle Award.
- best B&B or guesthouse experience
- best bar or pub
- best community tourism and events initiative
- best eating experience
- best hotel experience
- best outdoor and adventure experience
- best self-catering accommodation experience
- best visitor attraction
- climate action award
- employer of the year
- inclusion award
- innovation in tourism
- outstanding cultural event or festival
- tourism individual of the year
- rising star award
- best business event
- best luxury experience
- outstanding sporting event
What are the benefits of winning a Thistle Award?
To kick off the 2025 programme, we launched a brand-new advert on STV to help us shine a spotlight on the awards.
The new 30 second advert hears from previous Scottish Thistle Award winners and will run live on STV as well as on video on-demand during popular shows like This Morning, Coronation Street, and The Chase, reaching TV audiences across Scotland.
Who can apply for an award?
Accommodation
This includes B&Bs, hotels, guesthouses, inns, restaurants with rooms, farmhouses and more.
Food and drink
Pubs, restaurants, eateries and food providers.
Outdoor
Those delivering engaging experiences with our landscapes and local communities.
Visitor attractions
This includes all of Scotland's attractions that warmly welcome visitors.
Communities
Those working in partnership and collaborations within Scotland's communities.
Events
These include cultural events and festivals, business events and more.
Our headline sponsor
New for 2025 is our headline sponsor, Abbey - The Destination Experts, part of the Abbey Group. As a leading inbound travel specialist for the UK and Ireland, Abbey - The Destination Experts are the perfect partner to support and amplify the recognition of Scotland’s exceptional tourism offerings.
Rebecca Brooks, Managing Director of Abbey said: "These awards are a fantastic demonstration of excellence in our industry, helping to improve overall quality and standards.
The winners are exemplars in what they do and we know, in our business, how competitive the international environment is and how important it is to continue to drive quality and standards in Scotland, the Thistle Awards support this endeavour."
Our media partnership
We’re thrilled to be continuing our media partnership with News Scotland for the 2025 awards. News Scotland are publishers of The Times, The Sunday Times and The Scottish Sun.
This partnership will raise the profile of the Scottish Thistle Awards through print and online content. This boosts the profile of the awards, the winners and nominees and encourages businesses to enter.
Press activity from this partnership will appear in a range of publications. This will include Alba, Times Scotland, the Sunday Times and the Scottish Sun. This creates many opportunities to celebrate award participants up to, and including, the awards nights.
