A glittering ceremony at the Riviera Arena, Torquay on 1st February saw leading tourism businesses receive reward and recognition for their efforts in the South West Tourism Awards 2017/18.
A rigorous professional judging process over several months saw 647 entries whittled down to 123 gold, silver and bronze winners, from small hotels, to large attractions and once off major events.
The audience of over 450 people were treated to an introductory acrobatic spectacular by Tumbellina. And to whet your appetite here is a video of a similar show to the one given:
Wow!
Then it was on to an inspirational presentation by Ben Mee of Dartmoor Zoo and ‘I Bought A Zoo’ fame and a fantastic three course meal delivered by the Riviera Centre catering team.
And finally the awards…..
Winners were topped by ‘Winner of Winners’ Bovey Tracey’s Contemporary Craft Festival, awarded for their commitment to excellence, people, partnership, local provenance, education, development and for supporting those who can’t help themselves.
Our personal favourite was the Swan, Bampton, gold winner of the Tourism Pub Award. Quite a journey by Paul and Donna, who also won Devon Gold, the Trencherman’s Restaurant of the Year and achieved no28 in the English Gastropub rankings, all earlier this year.
It was great to see local honours with a silver to the Guardhouse Café, Brixham in the Café category, with Cantina Kitchen and Bar, Paignton picking up a bronze in the same group, whilst Aish Cottages, just down the road from our offices pulled off a bronze in the Self Catering Holiday category.
A full list of the winners is here:
http://www.southwesttourismawards.org.uk/page/59/201718-winners.htm
