Finalists announced: Orange votes could take out NSW Top Tourism Town Awards 2022

Divided into top, small and tiny, the city's 'Top Town' nomination comes as no surprise to Orange 360's general manager, Caddie Marshall, who sees Orange as a brawn bundle of choice - boasting its own vigour with a great line-up of surrounding locations.

"There's this real maturity around the offer that we're now able to package up, just in terms of the depth and breadth of experience," Ms Marshall said.

"There is a lot to explore and enjoy and none of us are competing against each other - we're delighted that Carcoar's gone into tiny, that Molong's gone in to the small town and Orange as the big baby. We know what people are searching for and we play to our strengths."

With Carcoar highlighted for its 'pristinely preserved' village heritage and Molong dubbed the 'unexpected gem', Orange made the must-visit destination list for its 'diamond-like' winters, scenic cellar doors and crackling restaurant fires.

Ms Marshall says the city's map-savvy-status is also due to fulfilling the ultimate memo that Orange is a seasonal, interesting and diverse destination through marketing and strategic planning - which she believes is paying off in spades.

"There's cellars, dining, galleries, museums, history, beautiful walks, cycle trails ... What does actually surprise so many people is the fact that we do in fact have the diversity of offer and when they get here they go 'oh, we had no idea about all of this'," she said.

"With marketing, there's so much that we can cover, but we've been quite singularly focused in the past - and now we're getting better at delivering more frequent but different messages."

Operators within the finalist areas can also gauge how their businesses are tracking and measuring up, which Ms Marshall says is where "the gold" is found.

"Awards are great, they are - the media call us and we love it. But, it's also the confidence that it provides our operators to continue to invest in their products and their business and their teams," she said.

"It's the learning, it's the exposure and it's the ability to benchmark yourself against others; and that, to me, is the gold that comes out of it - and the evolution of the product and experience."

The Central West will have Orange go up against Bathurst and it'll also have to face off with Mudgee again - the location that pipped the city in 2021.

"We love and support Mudgee - and they're really, really good at what they do - but now, we want to take the crown this year," Ms Marshall said.

"We want this for our businesses, we want this to help set us up for our road to recovery. People are going to get a world class experience when they come out here, so we need to make sure that all of Orange gets behind our region's three finalists and votes.

"It's a gold experience, it really is, and we know that when people get here, they'll just go 'wow, why haven't we come out here before'."

Public voting is now open until Wednesday, April 27, which allows lodging of one vote for one town in each category. To cast your votes for Orange, Molong and Carcoar, head online to the NSW Top Tourism Town Finalist website.