The awards keep piling up for Cobden bed and breakfast Heytesbury House which won silver at the Australian Tourism Awards in Canberra on March 6.
It was the first national recognition for Kathryn and Andrew Stubbings who have won state golds the past two years and state silvers the two years prior to that in their tourism category – hosted accommodation.
The nominees for the Australian awards consist of the annual winners from each state, meaning the field is very strong and any success highly coveted.
“We were really honoured. It’s an incredible achievement to get a town like Cobden recognised nationally for any of its products and we’re very proud of that,” Kathryn said.
“Whilst winning Gold for the state awards was amazing, winning silver at the nationals is on a different level altogether. You are competing against the very best that each state has to offer, so each contender is at the top of their field.
“It’s incredibly humbling and the whole awards process is a hell of a lot of work, but we find the process really valuable for our business as it benchmarks us against everyone else and the judges’ comments provide valuable feedback for us to work on.”
The couple took advantage of their trip to Canberra to spend some quality time at the Australian War Memorial, and to reflect on the effects of not only the bushfires, but also the Caronavirus crisis which dominated discussion at the awards night.
“It’s serious for us, it really is. Perhaps it’s easy for some people to ignore it or shrug it off, but it’s a crisis for the tourism industry and it’s impacted us significantly,” she said.
“The whole discussion in Canberra was about the struggles we are all having – right across Australia. It has the tourism industry on edge everywhere.
“We think it needs government intervention, but truthfully the biggest help would be if everyone packed a bag and went somewhere for the weekend.
“We love the ‘empty esky’ campaign which encourages people to take an empty esky away with them and bring local food and drink back home.
“Coronavirus is hurting accommodation providers like us, but the extension of that is all the small business in towns like ours that see some of those outside dollars.”
Kathryn and Andrew have their sights firmly set on Victorian Hall of Fame status at the end of the year which they will achieve if they win their third straight state gold.
