Albany's Steve Millhouse wins inaugural WA Tourism award for dedicated professionalism to the industry
Albany's Steve Millhouse has been recognised as an outstanding tourism professional at this year's WA Tourism Awards, taking home the inaugural excellence by a tourism professional award.
Six awards were handed out at the annual Perth Airport WA Tourism Conference dinner in Fremantle last Wednesday, including two inaugural awards: the local tourism legend award and the excellence by a tourism professional award.
Mr Millhouse was instrumental in opening the Hilton Garden Inn Albany in 2021. He continues to manage the venue while also running the Hilton Garden Inn Busselton in his role as cluster hotel manager.
He was recognised with the inaugural award for his commitment to managing two properties across different regions, while still contributing to his local community.
Mr Millhouse is a member of the board of regional tourism organisation Australia's South West, and an executive committee member of the Albany Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He said receiving the award came as an unexpected honour, but said he thought of it as an opportunity to do more for the community.
'I think it's important for people in this industry to be recognised, but I think it's important, especially being in a regional location, to be able to give back and offer your experience and support the community and support regional tourism,' he said.
'I think not just in Albany but throughout WA, regional tourism is a huge opportunity and it's growing quite steadily. And I think that for team members and for regional communities a lot of growth will come in the future, and so being able to give back and being part of that growth is quite rewarding.'
Gene Hardy, from Cape to Cape Explorer Tours, won the local tourism legend award for his ongoing contribution to tourism in the Margaret River region.
The FACET golden guide award winner was announced as Monique Boucher from Hidden deTours, and the individual excellence in Aboriginal tourism award was given to Bec Sampi from Kingfisher Tours Garingbaar.
WA Visitor Centre's Tammy Van der Heever won the individual excellence in customer service award, and the Sir David Brand young achiever medal was awarded to Floss Hayes from Cape to Cape Explorer Tours.
'The WA tourism industry is made possible thanks to the passionate people who tirelessly work towards showcasing WA to visitors,' Tourism Council WA chief executive Evan Hall said.
'The individual awards provided an opportunity for six of these people to be recognised for their commitment to creating innovative and friendly experiences for WA's visitors.'
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