Worcestershire’s best hotels and tourism businesses recogised at awards
WORCESTERSHIRE’S burgeoning tourism industry has been highlighted with the wiiners announced in the latest Visit Worcestershire Awards for Excellence.
The awards, announced at Visit Worcestershire’s Annual Tourism Conference, recognise excellence amongst the county’s hotels and tourism businesses. The awards are sponsored by Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership.
The finalists were judged on their ability to provide an exceptional tourism experience and the winner and highly commended from each category will now be put forward to the 2015 VisitEngland Awards For Excellence.
The awards were:
Best Tourism Experience Award – Sponsored by Heart of Worcestershire College
Winner: Avoncroft Museum
Highly Commended: Worcester Cathedral
Commended: Little Owl Farm Park
Best Hotel Award – Sponsored by Quality in Tourism
Winner: Brockencote Hall Hotel
Highly Commended: Dormy House Hotel & Spa
Commended: The Malvern
Best B&B Award – Sponsored by Quality in Tourism
Winner: Eckington Manor
Highly Commended: Green Farm Bed and Breakfast
Commended: Laughern Hill Estate
Best Self Catering Award – Sponsored by Quality in Tourism
Winner: Hop Pickers Rural Retreat
Highly Commended: Broadway Manor Cottages
Commended: Holywell Suite
Best Business Tourism Award – Sponsored by BookoTel
Winner: Brockencote Hall Hotel
Highly Commended: Top Barn Activity Centre
Commended: Aztec Adventures
Best Sustainable Tourism Award – Sponsored by Modus
Winner: Green & Away
Highly Commended: Broadway Manor Cottages
Commended: Little Owl Farm Park
Best Festivals and Events Award – Sponsored by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce
Winner: Upton Blues Festival
Highly Commended: Broadway Arts Festival
Commended: Droitwich Spa Food and Drink Festival
Best Tastes of Worcestershire Award – Sponsored by CB Chartered Accountants
Winner: Eckington Manor
Highly Commended: The Talbot
Commended: The Cardinal’s Hat
The awards, held at the Mercure Kidderminster, attracted more than 100 guests, who heard presentations from guest speakers Louise Stewart, Director of Strategy and Development at VisitEngland and Matt Lloyd, Director of Ventutec.
The Upton Blues Festival attracts around 15,000 music fans to Upton upon Severn each July.
It is the largest completely free blues festival in the UK. With two main stages at either end of the town, an Acoustic Stage and nine pub and boat stages, the festival features more than 100 performances across the weekend from a broad range of blues-related styles from acoustic to New Orleans, front porch to blues rock, old soul to gospel.
“The Upton Blues Festival has grown organically from a small event in the pubs to one of the best blues festivals in the UK through the application of a small group of volunteer organisers,” said Grahame Bunn, a volunteer committee member. “We now have over 2,000 campers, people who travel from across the country every year, and people who discover us new each time as the fame of the festival grows.”
The festival now generates around £500,000 of income for the town and the event is completely self-funded with no public support or big name sponsorships.
