Hawai'i tourism got an early Christmas present from Travel Weekly — the national travel industry newspaper — with honors at the sixth annual Readers Choice Awards in New York.

Hawai'i took the prize for top state and Maui got the nod for best of Hawai'i on Dec. 11. And Pleasant Holidays, based in California, won the designation of top tour operator for Hawai'i.

The award winners, one for each of the 56 categories, represented the "best of the best of the travel industry." The nominees and award recipients were chosen in several rounds of voting by Travel Weekly's readers, a group of expert travel professionals.

The open ballot phase of the voting was conducted during the summer. Readers were invited to write in the names of any company they believed best exemplified that particular category. The leading vote recipients were identified as finalists, and voting on finalists took place through early November 2008.