TOURISM AWARDS DEADLINE FAST APPROACHING

The countdown for the 2023-24 Enjoy Staffordshire Tourism & Good Food Awards is now on, with less than a month to go before the deadline for entries!

This year’s competition, organised by Enjoy Staffordshire in partnership with Staffordshire University and VisitEngland, closes for applications at midnight on Monday 31st July, with 20 categories including the new Rising Star and Team of the Year awards.

The awards are free to enter, and any attraction, venue, accommodation business, restaurant, pub, café, or farm shop can apply – as long as they are in Staffordshire or Stoke-on-Trent.

They offer an opportunity for businesses to get recognition for their commitment and dedication to providing visitors with a great experience – as well as the chance to progress to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.

At the 2022-23 Awards for Excellence, Staffordshire’s National Memorial Arboretum won the Business Events Venue of the Year, while The Duncombe Arms won Bronze in the Pub of the Year category, and The Trentham Estate’s Carol Adams won Bronze for Unsung Hero.

Mark Ellis, National Memorial Arboretum Lead, said: “The Enjoy Staffordshire Tourism & Good Food Awards provide us with a platform to highlight the incredible work of our team and demonstrate how their efforts allow us to deliver a world-class visitor experience.

“In addition to collecting several Enjoy Staffordshire awards, we’ve also been recognised at successive VisitEngland Awards for Excellence, most recently winning Business Events Venue of the Year 2023 for Aspects, our state-of-the-art events building.

“We hosted a special event in Aspects on the night of the awards, giving team members the opportunity to gather and celebrate being shortlisted – it was tremendous that so many colleagues were together to share in the delight at the precise moment when we discovered that we had won!

“While winning is obviously a tremendous boost to the whole team and raises our profile with industry peers, just entering the awards is a rewarding experience, encouraging us to reflect on our work and helping us to identify areas where we can further enhance our visitor offer.”

A free online workshop, offering hints and tips on how to write a tourism awards application, has been organised for Wednesday 5th July, between 10.30am and 12.00pm. Further details are available at www.enjoystaffordshire.com/awards.