That's gold: The popluarity of cute critters at Feathdale, like this bilby pictured with Mitch Bentley, has seen the venue win yet another tourism award. Picture: Gary Warrick
Featherdale Wildlife Park took home the gold award in the ‘Tourist Attractions’ category at the 2012 Greater Sydney Tourism Awards on Thursday night.
Now in its third year, the Greater Sydney Tourism Awards provides recognition to the high caliber of tourism experiences in the region, from as far north as Hawkesbury to Campbelltown and Sutherland in the south.
As a result of winning gold for the third consecutive year, Featherdale will be entered into the GSTA Hall of Fame in 2013.
The Gold Award has also provided Featherdale with automatic finalist status at the NSW Tourism Awards to be held in November.
In accepting the award, administration manager Lisa Christie acknowledged the team behind Featherdale’s continued success as well as the Park’s commitment to evolving with the changing needs of the consumer.
''Featherdale Wildlife Park celebrates its 40th birthday this month and to receive recognition for excellence in the tourism industry is a testament to the park’s ability to continually adapt and provide a fresh and innovative wildlife experience for our international and domestic visitors,'' she said.
''Our continued success however, could not be achieved without the passion of our staff and to be the recipient of this award is a testament to their continuing hard work and dedication.”
Featherdale Wildlife Park is home to the world’s most comprehensive variety of Australian native animals and features NSW’s only free all day encounter with a koala. The park welcomes over 300,000 international and domestic visitors through its gates each year and has a strong commitment to education and conservation. Featherdale recently opened a new koala breeding habitat,to assist with its expanding breeding program of this iconic but vulnerable species.
The Park is open 9am-5pm every day of the year, except Christmas Day.
Featherdale is located at 217 Kildare Road Doonside, Sydney.
Go to featherdale.com.au