The council was awarded the prize for the second round of the 2017 Enduro World Series at the Blue Derby Mountain Bike Trails.

Dorset beat out three City of Launceston events – Festivale, Agfest Field Days and Kid I am – to claim the award.

Launceston Chamber of Commerce president Tim Holder commended the council on the “world class event”.

“The council did a fabulous job in seeking to attract this event to Tasmania and to Blue Derby specifically,” he said.

“It was a courageous event, given the amount of visitors coming to the region.”

Dorset general manager Tim Watson said the trails are among the best in the world.

“The natural features of where the trails are located are quite unique for anywhere in the world, and they are maintained to an extremely high standard,” he said.

“There would only be a few trails in the world maintained to that standard.”

The trails draw 30,000 visitors a year, with 70 per cent coming from interstate, according to Mr Watson.

The average amount of time spent in Tasmania for those tourists is 10 days, with four of those being in Derby.

The final result is a $30 million boost to the Tasmanian economy.

Mr Watson said Derby will now look to host future international mountain bike events.

“In about 12 months time, we will start to talk about trying to secure the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.

“We’ve foreshadowed that it’s an opportunity we should pursue as a state.

“I would imagine around about mid-year next year we’ll start getting into that space, and see how realistic it is.”

“We’re also in the process of securing the Enduro World Series for 2019.”

The award comes at a time when great uncertainty shrouds the council’s plan to create bike trails for the proposed North-East Rail Trail.

Despite opposition from those who would prefer a heritage rail, Mr Watson said the award “certainly vindicates the potential of cycling tourism”.