The Elvis festival was runner-up to the NSW Caravan, Camping, 4WD and Holiday Supershow.

The festival came up against other events, such as the Hunter Valley Gardens Christmas Lights Spectacular, Old Bar Beach Festival and World Youth Day 2008.

To come second out of all these big name festivals is fantastic for Parkes, who has hosted the Elvis Festival for 16 years.

In 1993, the festival was a one night event attracting only 200 people, so for it to grow to 9500 in 2009 and be recognised as the second-best festival in the state is a huge achievement.

The Parkes Dish Café was a finalist in the “Tourism Restaurants and Catering Services” category.

The winner of the “Tourism Restaurants and Catering Services” was the Bent On Food Café in the Mid North Coast.

The awards were held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour.

Minister for Tourism Jodi McKay congratulated each finalist on their nomination.

“These awards reinforce the quality, vitality and diversity of the NSW tourism industry and recognise those businesses that have been the benchmark for best practice across the State,” Ms McKay said.

She also said that there were close to 150 finalists across 30 categories in this year’s awards.

Tourism contributes more than $28.2 billion to the NSW economy and supports more than 162,500 jobs, so recognising the achievements of tourism is vital to encouraging tourism destinations to keep running.

The winner of the “Major Tourist Attraction” award was Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney.