Recipients of the 2015 Minister's Student Achiever Awards in Tourism and Hospitality were honoured today by Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres at a special ceremony held at Parliament House in Sydney.

Mr Ayres congratulated 13 students on their outstanding achievements in their chosen fields of study and acknowledged the importance of professional training to the tourism industry.

“These students have shown great commitment and determination towards a career in tourism and hospitality and it was inspiring to see the incredible talent and enthusiasm on display,” Mr Ayres said.

“The NSW Government, through its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW, remains committed to helping grow the NSW visitor economy and this includes creating more job opportunities for our next generation of tourism industry professionals.”

Destination NSW Chief Executive Officer Sandra Chipchase said the academic achievement shown amongst the students will no doubt make a significant contribution to our State's tourism and hospitality industry in years to come.

“The tourism and hospitality industries are the world's largest employers and the Minister's Student Achiever Awards is a wonderful platform to showcase the State's best students who are on the right path to becoming future industry leaders,” Ms Chipchase said.

Since 1990, the NSW Government, through the Minister for Tourism, has acknowledged academically high achieving tourism and hospitality students at an annual Minister's Student Achievers Awards ceremony.

The 2015 Award recipients are:

Courtney Chong
Bachelor of Business in Hotel Management at the Hotel School Sydney

Chelsea Foster
Bachelor of Business in Convention & Event Management at Southern Cross University, School of Business & Tourism

Anthony Lalli
Bachelor of Tourism Management at the University of Western Sydney

Madeleine Lowe
Bachelor of Management in Tourism and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies at the University of Technology Sydney

Rebecca Lubgans
Advanced Diploma of Hospitality at Kenvale College

Taylor Luland
Certificate III in Travel at Australian Pacific Travel and Tourism

Travis Mollard
Advanced Diploma of Travel and Tourism and Certificate III Tourism (Guiding) at TAFE NSW, Northern Sydney Institute

Bonnie-Sue O'Garey
Bachelor of Business (Tourism Management) at William Blue College of Hospitality Management

Stephen Pirovic
Bachelor of Business International Hotel & Resort Management at Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School

Sarah Pryor
Future Club Leaders Program, Diploma of Management at Barrington Training Services

Matthew Richter
Certificate III Commercial Cookery at TAFE NSW, Riverina Institute

Lisa Smith
Bachelor of Business with Honours in Tourism at the University of Newcastle

Maraia Talei
Advanced Diploma of Travel & Tourism at TAFE NSW, South Western Sydney Institute