Sept. 16. Visit Lake Norman announced today that it is expanding its annual Making Waves Hospitality Awards program for 2017.

The program will continue to feature awards for Outshines from the Front Lines, which recognizes a guest services representative; Stellar Seller, which recognizes a sales representative; and Lead to Succeed which recognizes a management professional. But next year it will add awards for the best across all of Lake Norman’s hospitality industry, including hotels, restaurants, venues, events and an unsung hospitality hero.

The new award categories are: Divine Dining, which recognizes an exemplary restaurant; Venue of the Year, which recognizes a local venue that has done good work attracting tourists; Event of the Year, which recognizes a tourism-impacting event; and Unsung Hospitality Hero, which recognizes a hospitality who has gone above and beyond to make Lake Norman a great destination.

Winners will be announced at VLN’s annual awards luncheon in the spring of 2017.

To nominate venues or people for any of these awards, go to www.visitlakenorman.org/media/hospitality-awards. Nominations are due by Dec. 31.