A Magnetic Island backpacker retreat took out the top award in its category at Friday night's 2006 Queensland Tourism Awards.

Tourism Minister Margaret Keech said Bungalow Bay Koala Village was a first-time entrant in the annual awards and won the Backpacker Accommodation category ahead of stiff competition from Brisbane and the Whitsundays.

"Townsville also produced an impressive 12 finalists on the evening, up from five last year," Mrs Keech said.

"The Queensland Tourism Awards recognise the best of the best and it was inspiring to see so many worthy entrants and so many delighted and enthusiastic winners and finalists in a diverse range of 28 award categories," Mrs Keech said.

"BungalowBayKoalaVillage not only received the top accolade in its category, but was also awarded the Best Entry, a tremendous achievement considering we received nearly 200 nominations.

"As the Best Entry, the company receives $10,000 for promotional and marketing purposes, which I am sure will be put to good use.

"Only last month BungalowBayKoalaVillage won the QNI 2006 North Queensland Tourism Award for Backpacker Accommodation and can now look forward to representing Queensland at the national awards early next year."

Around 1,200 tourism leaders and representatives attended the gala awards ceremony to celebrate and commemorate excellence in the industry, held this year at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Mrs Keech paid tribute to awards organisers Tourism Queensland and the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, as well as the 13-member Judging Panel and sponsors for ensuring the gala evening was a huge success.

"This is the 10^th year that QR's Traveltrain Holidays has provided its support and

backing to the awards and we were delighted that they joined as our principal partner this year," she said. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it " target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\> This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it u003c/a\>'.\nPlease ensure that you use the email address exactly as it appears, \nespecially in relation to upper and lower case characters.\n\t\t\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>",0] ); //-->

"All state winners now progress to the Australian Tourism Awards on 23 February 2007.

"There they will fly the Queensland flag and hopefully continue our proud record at the national level and showcase Queensland as the number one destination of choice."

For further information, visit www.queenslandtourismawards .com.au.