Tourism is one of York’s key sectors, contributing £443 million to its economy and supporting 23,000 jobs in and around the city.

Seven million visitors come to the city every year, according to figures from the city’s tourist board Visit York, and 17 per cent of these come from overseas.

Across Yorkshire, the tourism industry is worth more than £7 billion annually and the county attracts about 216 million visits each year.

The region’s several thousand tourism and hospitality businesses, which together employ almost a quarter of a million people, play a vital role in welcoming these visitors, building York’s reputation as not only a world-class tourist destination, but a world-class city for business.

As the region gears up to welcome a huge increase in the number of visitors as it hosts major sporting events, these businesses and their ways of working collaboratively and innovatively become ever more important.

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games demonstrated the impact sporting events can have on the visitor economy.

About 83,500 people are believed to have flocked to York city centre to watch the Olympic torch pass through, generating up to £1 million of additional spend over the two days.

A new marathon to be held in York and the surrounding area in October is expected to attract a further 15,000 spectators while the largest sporting event in the world, the Tour de France, is to be hosted in the region in 2014.

As well as the hordes of competitors, crews, families and spectators who will visit Yorkshire, the event will attract the attention of the world’s media and television viewers.

Tourism and Hospitality Business Of The Year is an award for the businesses which lie behind the region’s success, acting as ambassadors for the region, providing top-notch customer service, innovating and improving the offer for visitors to the region.

Businesses could be hotels, restaurants, cafés, visitor attractions or any business which welcomes, entertains and serves visitors and helps to draw them to the area.

The judges also want to see best business practice in how the companies develop staff, overcome challenges, market themselves and plan for the business’s future.