PRESS RELEASE
Local Sauce Tours founder Justin Steele has been awarded Gold in the inaugural 2025 NSW Top Tour Guide Awards, announced last night at a special event on Sydney Harbour during Vivid Sydney.
Presented by the NSW Tourism Association, in partnership with Tour Guides Australia, Outdoors NSW & ACT, and Journey Beyond Cruise Sydney, the awards celebrate excellence in storytelling, visitor engagement, and cultural connection. As the Gold winner, Steele will represent NSW at the national Top Tour Guide Awards in Canberra later this year.
“This award is a timely reminder of the critical role guides play in shaping how NSW is experienced by international and domestic guests. So often, the focus is on attractions, landmarks or restaurants, but it’s the tour guides who welcome visitors, share stories, and create those unforgettable moments,” said Steele.
“Personally, it is an acknowledgment of how far I’ve come over the past eight years, from being a fairly average corporate lawyer to now being recognised as the state’s top tour guide. And I’m not even from here!” joked the Brisbane-born Steele.
Founded in 2018, Local Sauce Tours offers curated walking tours that blend local culture, food and history with humour, heart and a strong sense of place. Steele leads many of the company’s tours himself and believes that connection is at the core of any great experience.
“The best tours aren’t just informative – they make people feel something,” he said. “Guests want to connect with a place, with each other, and with a great guide. In a world missing spontaneity and real conversation, that human connection is everything.”
Among the company’s tours that best represent the Local Sauce Tours approach are:
- Chinatown – Street Food & Stories: A twice-weekly tour through Sydney’s historic Chinatown, blending authentic street food with deep dives into the city’s Chinese-Australian heritage.
- Ultimate Sydney Walking Tour: A dynamic, narrative-driven journey through Sydney’s layered history, touching on Aboriginal, British and migrant perspectives.
- Sydney by Night – Secret Bars & Stories: A small bar tour with five different routes across Sydney’s inner-city neighbourhoods, offering solo travellers, couples and groups a fun and safe way to experience Sydney nightlife.
Destination NSW CEO Karen Jones praised the contribution of tour guides to the state’s visitor economy: “Tour guides play a vital role in shaping how visitors experience and connect with New South Wales… this year’s finalists represent the very best of our visitor economy. I congratulate them all on their outstanding achievements.”
About Local Sauce Tours
Local Sauce Tours is an award-winning Sydney and Brisbane tour company that brings guests from all over the world together on small-group food and drink experiences. Tours include food tours, secret bar experiences, street art tours, cultural history tours and dining experiences with refugee chefs. With a maximum of 12 guests and passionate entertaining guides, you’ll make new friends and discover a side of the city that even locals don’t know!
For more on Local Sauce Tours, visit: Website | Facebook | Instagram.
