Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence
Presented each year at TIAO’s Ontario Tourism Summit, the Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence celebrate success and recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to Ontario’s tourism industry. The Awards are jointly presented by the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario, Attractions Ontario, Indigenous Tourism Ontario, OTEC and the Culinary Tourism Alliance.
Award Categories:
Tourism Industry Awards of Excellence
Tourism Marketing & Travel Media Awards of Excellence
Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence (presented by the Culinary Tourism Alliance)
Ontario's Choice Awards (presented by Attractions Ontario)
Workforce Innovation and Collaboration Awards (presented by OTEC)
Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence
The Culinary Tourism Alliance is honoured to once again present the Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence at the 2023 Ontario Tourism Summit.
Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence are about the passion and excellence of those dedicated to advancing the culinary tourism movement in Ontario; they recognize those who work hard to tell the stories of our growers, producers, chefs, winemakers and brewers.
Awards will be given out in four categories:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (NEW for 2023)
Leadership
Experience of the Year
Event of the Year
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN
until noon on August 21, 2023
Ontario Tourism Award Partners
MEET THE 2020 WINNERS
of the Ontario Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence
2020 CULINARY TOURISM LEADERSHIP AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Indigenous Tourism Ontario
+ Destination Ontario
In a region that is dotted with Tim Horton shops and known more for shore lunches than other signature dining experiences, the idea of developing a great Northern Ontario food tourism offering posed some challenges. This partnership exemplified what’s possible when two organizations work together to build something unique – from the ground up.
“GChi Miigwetch to our outstanding Indigenous tourism industry who allows us to represent them; to our amazing partner Destination Northern Ontario who we couldn’t service Northern Ontario without; to the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario for their unrivalled leadership; and to the Culinary Tourism Alliance for recognizing this impactful work. We are extremely proud of this prestigious award and we look forward to continuing to advance the Indigenous Food Tourism work across Ontario.”
— Kevin Eshkawkogan, Indigenous Tourism Ontario
2020 FINALISTS INCLUDE: Tapah’s Table and Windsor Eats
2020 CULINARY TOURISM EXPERIENCE AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Forest City Culinary Experiences
by the Lavery Culinary Group
Forest City Culinary Experiences in London, Ontario offers customizable experiences and partner with other community organizations to develop sustainable experiences for followers and culinary enthusiasts. From hands-on and from-scratch cook class experiences to a wide range of food and drink focused walking experiences in Downtown London and the surrounding area. Guests are connected to the Forest City in a new way indulging their senses with an insider experience by local culinary experts.
“We were both surprised and honoured to learn that we have been named as winners for the Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence in the Culinary Tourism Experience Award category. Bryan Lavery has been in the culinary experience business in one way or another for more than four decades. More recently, we formed the Lavery Culinary Group, and its subsidiary Forest City Culinary Experiences with the express intention of developing and delivering unique culinary experiences. Since our inception in 2017, we have benefited from the support and collaboration of a number of individuals, community partners and like-minded organizations. Joanne Wolnik of Ontario Southwest Tourism has put a high priority on investing in experience development. Melissa De Luca of Tourism London has been a devout proponent and advocate of our work and advancing the culinary and experiential tourism landscape in London. Melissa’s leadership, focus, determination have led to the creation of the London Tourism Experience Community Team which we are a member. This team has laid a solid foundation for more experiences to be developed in our region, and has already produced several high-level experiences.”
Finalists included: Cowbell Brewing Co. and Thrive Norfolk
2020 CULINARY TOURISM EVENT OF THE YEAR
Feast on the Farm
by the West Nippissing Chamber of Commerce
+ Leisure Farms
West Nipissing’s Premiere Food Festival – Feast on the Farm is an annually sold out tradition celebrating local food and drink. Located at Leisure Farms and hosted by the West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce, Feast on the Farm is an open concept dining experience where guests have the opportunity to walk through a thriving family farming business while sampling local fare.
“Members of the board of directors of our local West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce and the Feast on the Farm committee are honored to have been nominated, and mostly to be Ontario Culinary Event of the Year Award winner.
The Feast on the Farm is organized by the West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce volunteers and takes place on the renowned Leisure Farms. It is a group of volunteers who spend numerous summer evenings in meetings preparing for this event and are now recognized for their hard work with this award. The annual 500 attendees from across Ontario, sold out tradition, is West Nipissing’s Premiere Food Festival. This is amazing results for a Sunday afternoon event.
Thank you also to the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario, the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation and the Culinary Tourism Alliance for the award, it is greatly treasured.”
— Joanne Valliere, Chair Feast on the Farm
Finalists included:
Terroir Run and The Whiskytown Festival by WindsorEats
For any questions regarding the Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence, please contact:
Nicole Brown, Director, Marketing at nicole@culinarytourismalliance.com
For questions regarding the Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence, please contact:
Carol Greenwood, Tourism Industry Association of Ontario at cgreenwood@tiaontario.ca