The presentation ceremony was held in London, UK, on 27 November, in front of an audience of 900 senior travel executives and representatives from consumer and trade media.

At the Awards, the best performing enterprises in leisure travel and tourism were announced, according to consumer votes, which were verified by business consultants Deloitte.

Competition was fierce across many of the categories and this year's winners should be very proud

Consumers voted between July and September this year, with 402,734 consumers casting 867,221 votes.

Categories were diverse, including holiday types, destinations, cruises, airlines and airports, UK holidays, hotels and villas, websites and retailers and travel agencies.

Some of the big winners were James Villa Holidays, which won five gold awards; Virgin Holidays, which won four gold awards; and Saga, which also won four gold awards.

In the airline category, Jet2 won the title of Best Short Haul Airline, while in the new Best Airport category, gold awards were given to Birmingham Airport for Best Large UK Airport, Liverpool Airport for Medium Airport and Doncaster Sheffield for Best Small UK Airport.

Cornwall came out on top as the Best UK Holiday County, while Bournemouth won Best UK Seaside Town, followed by Bude in second place and Blackpool in third.

"The British Travel Awards are voted for entirely by the travelling public and 2019 was a fantastic year for consumer engagement with registered voters up 20 per cent on 2018 and the number of votes cast increased by 15 per cent to 867,221,” said British Travel Awards’ CEO Lorraine Barnes Burton. "Competition was fierce across many of the categories and this year's winners should be very proud ─ congratulations to all winners and thank you to everyone who took the trouble to vote."