Independents shine in tourism awards

The cream of English tourism were recognised in a glittering awards ceremony this week. Among the winners of the Enjoy England Excellence Awards were a bed and breakfast in Norfolk and a caravan park in Nottinghamshire. The event seeks to celebrate the best of England’s tourism, and was held at the British Museum in London for its 16th ceremony. Winner of the Hotel of the Year was The Samling, which is on the edge of Lake Windermere and has a restaurant with one Michelin star. Title of top Large Visitor Attraction of the Year was taken home by two winners – Beamish North of England Open Air Museum in County Durham and Portsmouth Historic Dokyard. The first Business Tourism Award was won by Cotswold Conference Centre, a training and meeting venue in Worcestershire, while Bed and Breakfast of the Year went to Holly Lodge, which has three cottages in Norfolk. Another bed and breakfast, Lyth Hill House in Shrewsbury, took the Tourism Website of the Year Winner for its website, www.lythhillhouse.com, through which it estimates to receive 75% of its bookings. The awards, sponsored by The Caravan Club, are voted for by a panel of 30 judges from across the tourism industry and are considered to be the “Oscars” of English tourism. To read the full list of winners go to the Enjoy England website – www.visitengland.com/excellence. These winners represent the outstanding end of domestic tourism, and set a benchmark for England’s accommodation, attractions and services to aspire to – but is the bulk of Engalnd’s tourism offering up to scratch? This will be one topic of debate at next month’s TravelMole FastConference, which will examine how domestic tourism is being sold and distribution issues affecting domestic tourism suppliers, how agents could be incentivised to sell domestic holidays, and what the future is for selling British holidays to the Brits. We have lined up a top class panel to debate the issues. So far it includes: Thomas Cook head of trade relations, Anna Bentley; Enjoy England marketing director, Michael Beddingfield; East Midland Tourism chief executive Richard Dickinson and British Holiday and Home Parks Association director general, Ros Pritchard. Moderating the event, and sure to keep the panellists on their toes is TravelMole’s columnist and ex-Travel Weekly editor, Jeremy Skidmore. The event takes place at the New Connaught Rooms, Great Queen Street, London, from 3pm – 5pm on May 10, and is followed by drinks and a chance to “network”. For details and to register go to www.travelmole.com/fastconferences or call 020 7691 3292. The price is £99 for delegates, reduced to £59 for tour operators and agents, and £49 for students. Report by Ginny McGrath