THE Yorkshire Air Museum (YAM) was flying high today after being shortlisted for no fewer than three prestigious tourism awards.

The museum at Elvington, near York, is among more than a dozen businesses and organisations from the York area to make it to the finals of the White Rose Awards for Tourism, organised by the Yorkshire Tourist Board.

The YAM has been shortlisted for:

Small Visitor Attraction of the Year (under 100,000 visitors)

Tourism Website of the Year

Outstanding Customer Service of the Year

Museum spokesman Ian Reed, pictured, said: "We are absolutely delighted. It's a response to a tremendous amount of work that the staff have done over the past few years - to five years of hard slog." He said the museum had already achieved a number of award successes in recent years, including Yorkshire visitor attraction of the year in 2001 and two York Tourism awards last year.

Smaller hotels from the York area have also made a big impression on judges, with no fewer than four out of six finalists in the Small Hotel of the Year award, involving up to 50 bedrooms: The Dean Court Hotel, York, Hazlewood Castle near Tadcaster, Middlethorpe Hall & Spa and The Grange Hotel, York. The other two finalists are the Feversham Arms at Helmsley and Wood Hall at Wetherby.

The Large Hotel of the Year award, involving hotels of over 35 bedrooms, has one local finalist, Aldwark Manor at Alne, while York Luxury Holidays has reached the finals of the Self Catering Holiday of the Year.

Other finalists in this section include Ashwall House at Thirsk, Beech Farm Cottage at Wrelton, Eastgate Cottages at Pickering and Keld Head Farm Cottages at Pickering.

Castle Howard and the National Railway Museum have reached the final of the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year award, which involves attractions visited by 100,000 people and more. Castle Howard, the Dean Court Hotel and Hazlewood Castle, near Tadcaster, all make the finals of the Taste Of Yorkshire Award, while Hazlewood is also a finalist in the Tourism Website Of The Year section.

Other finalists for this website award include Eastgate Cottages at Pickering and Low Penhowe of Malton.

Fresh from the success of Royal Ascot at York, the city's racecourse has been shortlisted for the Best Tourism Experience of the Year Award.

Tourist board chief executive David Andrews said the finalists represented what was best about tourism in Yorkshire.

"Not only did they have to prove they have a quality product, but their approach to staff development, training, accessibility and customer service were all scrutinised," he said.

"To get this far is an achievement in itself. Those who go on to win a category will certainly deserve it. The finalists will find out whether they have won an award at a tension-filled and glittering awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 4, at the NRM.

Updated: 11:07 Tuesday, June 28, 2005