
We attended the glittering Cornwall Tourism awards ceremony at the magnificent Truro Cathedral on Thursday 1st November, and what a night it was! 400 guests packed into the Cathedral, to hear the keynote speech from the producer of TV show ‘Doc Martin’ , which has brought so many tourists to Cornwall.
A pretty good 3 course dinner followed. I thought the caterers did a really good job of feeding that many people in a space more used to worshippers than diners, and so to the awards.
The Cornwall tourism awards are now in their 17th year, and 80 awards presented in 26 categories. Organiser Robin Barker congratulated all award winners for entering and ” putting yourself through what is recognised as the country most rigorous tourism awards judging process” The Cornwall tourism awards include seven months of assessing evidence plus a rigorous 3 stage judging process. This in the area which has been voted the leading tourism destination in the UK for NINE years in succession, hopefully 10 following the ceremony coming up shortly in London.
Select South West tours were delighted to be nominated in 2 categories, Best Guided Tour and Best international visitor experience (which we were delighted to win last year). First came the Guided Tour awards..The three nominated organisations were invited up to the side of the stage where we all nervously waited. The first announcement came
The Silver award goes to Encounter Cornwall Kayak tours….not me! So they must be awarding 2 golds and no bronze! I Together with the owner of dude Canoe Experience we quietly celebrated, before he and then I were called separately to receive our Gold awards. Many thanks to purecomms.co.uk for sponsoring this award. Gold! Guided tour of the year!
Shortly afterwards the award for International Visitor experience. The same process but only 2 nominations. Select South WestTours and the Geevor tin mine. ” and the Silver award goes to…Geevor Tin mine !” I had won Gold Again! Two years running for this award for Select South West Tours.
With much pride I went up to receive my second Gold award! Many thanks to cornwallairportnewquay.com for sponsoring this award again in 2018.
What a great evening to celebrate the end of my third full season! Now some time out and then..many new developments planned for 2019!