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Winery tour firm toast of travel trade

A tour company for Margaret River wine lovers has been acknowledged as one of Australia's top tourist operations.

The family-owned Top Drop Tours was last night named as the nation's top tour and transport operator at the prestigious Australian Tourism Awards night in Adelaide. It was one of two gold medals won by WA.

The other gold was awarded to the City of Fremantle for its excellence in tourism planning, providing tourism facilities and services, event development and its overall contribution to the local tourism industry.

The awards night was dominated by Tasmania with 10 gold medals, including the Port Arthur historic site being named Australia's best major tourist attraction.

Top Drop specialises in small-group and private wine tours of the Margaret River region. Each tour is designed to match the wine tastes of the guests.

After winning the gold medal at the WA awards last year, owner Chris O'Hare said he was proud to be honoured with such a prestigious award.

"The Margaret River region is a truly remarkable part of the world," he said. "We have the pleasure of showing off its phenomenal wine, food, scenery and characters to visitors from near and far on a daily basis."

The operation has earned plenty of praise on TripAdvisor, the world's biggest online travel site.

"A fab afternoon, in a comfortable vehicle and some fab cellar doors visited. Thank you so much," one customer said.

"We had a fantastic day visiting six wineries. We'd certainly book again," another said.

Tourism Council chief executive Evan Hall said Top Drop Tours epitomised the amazing food and wine tourism experiences WA had to offer.

"Destinations only succeed through the good work of local governments and the City of Fremantle is also to be applauded for its national achievement," Mr Hall said.

WA also earned three silver and two bronze medals. Out of Sight, which provides four-wheel-drive tours to West Cape Howe, the southernmost point of WA, was second in the ecotourism section.

The Cottesloe Beach Hotel was second in the standard accommodation award and Cable Beach Club Resort was also second in the luxury accommodation category, finishing behind Victoria's Drift House.

The bronze medals went to the Geographe Bay Tourism Association (visitor information services award) and Segway Tours WA (new tourism business award).