North Yorkshire is home to all but one of the winners in the 1998 White Rose Awards.

The county also picked up most of the prizes in the highly commended section of the annual search by the Yorkshire Tourist Board for the best in the industry.

A museum in a former prisoner of war camp near Malton scooped visitor attraction of the year in the category of 50,000 visitors or more. Eden Camp, a modern history theme museum where visitors can experience life during the war years, was praised by the judges for improving itself every year.

Spokesman Steve Jaques said: "It is a fantastic award to have won, being the best in Yorkshire. We have never stood still and are always adding to the museum.

"We won this award in 1992 and there are not many who have done it twice. We'll have to extend the wall to fit all our awards in."

The "homecoming2 of the HM Bark Endeavour, the replica of Captain Cook's ship which sailed into Whitby last year to a rapturous welcome, won tourism event of the year. The town had raised its own profile considerably and generated an atmosphere of pride and optimism, which would undoubtedly have a long term effect on the area's future, the judges said.

And in York, Bettys Caf tea rooms in St Helen's Square had the icing put on its 60th birthday cake by taking first prize in the category of training for tourism.

Its staff received "innovative and thorough" training, the judges said, ensuring that the service to customers was exemplary.

Bettys general manager Sally Carter said: "Customer care is the most important thing and we really concentrate on training staff in this. There is so much competition in Yorkshire that we have to."

The National Railway Museum in York picked up two awards. It shared winner of the "tourism for all" category with a hotel in Leeds for its strong commitment to helping visitors with specific needs, and was highly commended in the visitor attraction of the year category.

The White Rose Awards, were announced last night at a glittering ceremony at Allerton Park, a Victorian castle near Knaresborough.

They are designed to recognise excellence in tourism. The industry is worth more than £2 billion a year to Yorkshire and supports more than 135,000 full-time jobs.

The only award not won by a North Yorkshire entry was Tourist Information Centre of the Year, which was picked up by Gateway Yorkshire in Leeds.

The newcomer of the year went to Hazlewood Castle, near Tadcaster, which opened as a hotel last October after being sold off by Carmelite monks who had used it as a retreat.

General manager Richard Carr said the castle offered a "total lifestyle experience in fine dining", with a luxury restaurant, caf bar, banqueting facilities and two catering schools on site.

David Ward and wife Kathy won highly commended in the Self Catering Award for their Gales House Farm, Gillamoor, near Kirkbymoorside, where one of their main attractions is guided mountain bike rides. Mr Ward, who has run the farm for eight years, said: "We are absolutely delighted to have won, it is the first time we have entered."

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