THERE are just days to go until the winners of this year's Visit Worcestershire and Visit Herefordshire awards are announced.

The awards celebrate tourism businesses across the two counties with the best guest houses and self catering accommodation, festivals and events, and food producers all competing to be named the winner for their category in their county.

In the last six weeks judges have been visiting the nominees as part of the process to decide on which finalists will be crowned this year’s winners.

It has already been revealed the judges had difficulty deciding as this year there were more entries received than ever before, with some businesses winning their category by only one point.

All finalists have been invited to the Visit Worcestershire and Visit Herefordshire awards ceremony, being held at Eastnor Castle's Great Hall this Tuesday, September 20.

The 120 guests will be enjoying drinks and cakes on arrival, as well as hearing from speakers Gary Woodman, chief executive of Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, and Nigel Huddleston, MP for Mid Worcestershire and member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

Emma Wheeler, tourism officer at Visit Worcestershire, said: “We are so grateful to the businesses supporting these awards and helping to make them happen.

"Many of the judges have been involved in deciding the winners of each category and it has opened their eyes to how much quality and variety the two counties have to offer.

"This year has seen such a wonderful range of finalists to choose from: I am sure that some of our winners will go on to represent the two counties at the 2017 VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.”

Ozan Pakyuz of SimpliWiFi - one of the event sponsors - said: "Any chance to showcase the expertise and entrepreneurship of businesses and organisations within the county can only be a good thing.

"We are very proud to support this.”

To view a full list of award finalists, or see the winners listed online after the event, see visitworcestershire.org/awards.