Stena Line is celebrating after sailing away with the Best Ferry Company award at the annual Northern Ireland Travel and Tourism Awards.
The travel industry has been one of the hardest hit since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 and last year’s awards ceremony, organised by NI Travel News, was postponed.
However, the travel and tourism ‘Oscars’ returned on Friday night (October 15) with Stena Line winning the prestigious ferry gong – a reward for a challenging 20 months throughout which the company played a vital role assisting those needing to make essential journeys and in the transportation of vital goods and medical supplies.
Best Ferry Company award
The award was presented to Orla Noonan, Stena Line’s Regional Travel Manager (Irish Sea), at the event held in the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa, which was hosted by local comedian Paddy Raff and attended by travel industry VIPs from across the UK and Ireland.
“We are absolutely thrilled to win this prestigious award after such a difficult time for our industry and hopefully this is a sign of better things to come as we slowly return to normality,” said Orla.
“To have our unwavering dedication to our customers recognised once again by our peers in the travel and tourism industry is a tremendous achievement for us.
“We have an outstanding and hard-working team at Stena Line and this acknowledgement really is the icing on the cake for us on the journey back to normality. Already we have seen record numbers of guests returning to our routes in September and we hope this trend continues into the busy Halloween and Christmas periods,” she continued.
“Despite the pandemic, during 2020 and 2021 we continued to invest heavily in our Irish Sea operations with the addition of three new next-generation vessels – Stena Edda and Stena Embla on the Belfast to Liverpool route and Stena Estrid on the Dublin to Holyhead route.
“To introduce three of the most modern ferries in the world at this time highlights our commitment to providing our customers with the best possible travel facilities and experience on the Irish Sea,” added Orla.
Stena Line is the largest ferry operator on the Irish Sea, offering the biggest fleet and the widest choice of routes between Ireland and Britain including Belfast to Cairnryan, Belfast to Liverpool, Belfast to Heysham, Dublin to Holyhead and Rosslare to Fishguard with a total of 220 weekly Irish Sea crossings.
Stena Line also offers a direct service from Rosslare to Cherbourg with twelve crossings a week. The company carries approximately three million passengers on its Irish Sea routes each year, more than its rival ferry operators combined.
