WHICH is the best small hotel in Chester-Cheshire? Where is this year's top visitor attraction? And which retailer deserves to win a top accolade?

It will be down to the judges in this year's Visit Chester & Cheshire Awards to make those decisions, and select the best from no less than 11 other categories that form part of this year's awards.

The 2007 Visit Chester & Cheshire Awards were officially unveiled this week, organised by Visit Chester & Cheshire, the area's tourism board, in association with the Chester Chronicle, and supported by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

Now in their third year, these awards are firmly established as the area's most prestigious celebration of excellence, innovation and achievement within the visitor economy.

Hotels, B&Bs, visitor attractions, tourism website managers, retailers, and other related businesses are among those being encouraged to enter. 'It's all about quality,' said Visit Chester & Cheshire chairman Mike Cooksley. 'Any business that's proud of its standards should be part of this year's awards.

'They may have introduced new facilities, created fresh innovations in customer service or gone the extra mile for people with access needs. Perhaps they've got a new website or helped promote local produce.

'The award categories offer an opportunity for nearly every business to get involved and try for that top accolade.'

Mike revealed two new additions to this year's award categories: Most Innovative Marketing Campaign and Best Holiday Park.

Trinity Mirror Cheshire's editor-in-chief, Eric Langton, commented: 'There are many brilliant examples of businesses helping to make it a great experience for visitors to Cheshire.

'Tourism is really important to the county and Trinity Mirror Cheshire is delighted to be able to publicise some of the best examples of an industry creating jobs and wealth for us all.'

Winners of a number of the categories automatically qualify for this year's England's Northwest Tourism Awards, to be held in October.

If successful, they might go on to take part in the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence.

In 2006, Chester & Cheshire celebrated four wins at the England's Northwest Tourism Awards.

They were:

* Arley Hall and Gardens (Small Attraction of the Year)

* English in Chester (Tourism Website of the Year),

* The Chester Grosvenor and Spa (Large Hotel of the Year)

* Congleton TIC voted (Tourist Information Centre of the Year)

They are now waiting to discover whether they have been shortlisted for the national awards.

Peter Mearns, director of marketing and communications at the Northwest Regional Development Agency, said: 'The NWDA is pleased to support the Visit Chester and Cheshire Tourism Awards.

'Tourism is a major success story for the North West and it is a pleasure to celebrate achievement and reward the hard work and commitment of professionals across the industry.'

He added: 'Chester and Cheshire always produces some strong contenders for the regional awards later in the year and I am hopeful that we will be able to emulate the success of Chester's Green Bough at the national awards last year.'

* For further information on the 2007 Visit Chester & Cheshire Awards, contact Visit Chester & Cheshire on 01244 40560

* Criteria, and nomination forms are available online at www.visitchesterandcheshire.co.uk