Calling all Brixham’s best tourism businesses! It’s time to apply for the annual tourism excellence awards. There are two competitions open to all tourism businesses in Brixham: the Visit Devon awards, and the South Devon Herald Express awards. The two competitions (which are run separately) are similar with categories such as “best B&B”, “best tourism experience” and “best café”. Being shortlisted or even winning is a great way to make your business stand out from the crowd; it can lead to a huge amount of publicity both locally and nationally and gives us all the chance to reinforce Brixham’s status as a fantastic destination.
Success at the Visit Devon awards is also the route to be invited to the regional and national level tourism award competitions.
In 2015 Brixham had a number of winners: Brixfest and Fishstock took Gold and Silver awards for Tourism Event of the Year in the South Devon awards, Brixham Cottages won a Silver for the best Self Catering accommodation, the Quayside Hotel won a Silver for Fine Dining and Berry Head’s Guardhouse Café which won the Gold award for Devon’s best café / tearoom and went on to win awards at the South West and England levels.
Chamber executive member & Guardhouse Café owner Alex Foley said “I strongly recommend Brixham businesses to enter these awards! Because of our surprise win last year we received a lot of great publicity including being listed in the Telegraph as one of the places to visit in Devon. That brought lots of new customers into the café this year and it turned out to be the most valuable marketing project we have undertaken. Our town is a beautiful place to visit and we have incredible restaurants, cafes and accommodation which surely would have at least as much chance as we have of receiving a prize. I would love to see a lot more Brixham-based winners this year!”
The Devon awards need attention first as the application deadline is June 12th. The Herald Express awards close on 4th July and the application form for this one is almost identical to the Devon awards. There is no cost involved in entering, other than providing a free meal / stay to the judges if your business is shortlisted following the initial application.
Visit Devon awards: http://www.devontourismawards.org.uk/
Herald Express awards: http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/Herald-Express-Tourism-Awards-2016-ENTER/story-29199333-detail/story.html