21/06/2026
County Durham has been named Best UK Destination for the second year in a row at the prestigious Group Leisure and Travel Awards! 🏆🎉🚌
The awards celebrate excellence across attractions, tour operators, museums, venues, live experiences and destinations, based on votes from readers of Group Leisure and Travel Magazine.
Also shortlisted on the night were Kynren – An Epic Tale of England, and Beamish Museum, demonstrating even further why the county is such a great destination for groups.
In 2025, tourism contributed a record-breaking £1.48 billion to County Durham’s economy and group travel played a significant part in this.
Our tourism service Visit County Durham has supported the group travel market for many years, through business support, product development, and promotion.
Together with private sector businesses, we have also invested in coach parking and facilities, resulting in the county holding the most Coach Friendly Accreditations. And through the Discover Durham groups and travel trade consortium, Visit County Durham works in partnership with tourism businesses to raise the collective profile and appeal of the county, with results like this demonstrating success.
