Go Cotswolds wins BRONZE at the West Midlands Tourism Awards 2022

On Thursday 16th March, we booked a babysitter, and threw on our glad rags. Then, together with our guides Colin and Mark, and Mark’s wife Sue, Tom and I were off to Coombe Abbey in Coventry for the West Midlands Tourism Awards ceremony!

Celebrating tourism in the West Midlands

The aim of the West Midlands Tourism Awards is to recognise the area’s best tourism companies. It’s been a difficult couple of years for tourism businesses all over the country, indeed the world. But as Andrew Lovett, Chair of the West Midlands Regional Board for Tourism, said:

The West Midlands Tourism Awards provided us with a lovely opportunity to get together and to say a loud collective thank you to the staff and owners at visitor attractions, accommodation and hospitality venues for the warmest of welcomes they’ve provided over the past two years.

The tourism community has shown remarkable resilience and ingenuity in the way it has responded to and come through the pandemic. With restrictions and rules now removed, I hope that more people choose to visit the West Midlands and enjoy the once-in-a-generation summer of great festivals and events, led by the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Bronze at the West Midlands Tourism Awards for Go Cotswolds

The fantastic evening, complete with 3 course dinner and entertainment, was hosted by former BBC Midlands Arts & Culture correspondent Satnam Rana-Grindley. There were 13 award categories in total, and Go Cotswolds was a finalist in the Experience of the Year category.

While we didn’t win the top accolade, we did receive a brilliant Bronze award. We’re absolutely delighted!

The winner of the Gold award was the National Trust-owned Roundhouse in Birmingham, for their canal kayaking experiences. The silver award went to our good friends and Stratford-based neighbours Shakespeare Distillery for their fantastic gin distillery tours.

I mean, how could we compete with The National Trust – and gin! But to come third, in the whole of the West Midlands, behind these two amazing organisations is just fantastic.

Our sincerest thanks to Shakespeare’s England, our local destination management organisation, who very generously subsidised our attendance at the awards.