Applications Open For York’s Tourism Oscars

Local News

Entries are now open for the prestigious Visit York Tourism Awards, which recognise, congratulate and celebrate outstanding businesses and individuals that deliver a world-class welcome experience for visitors to the city.  

The last Visit York Tourism Awards took place in 2020, where fourteen of York’s top tourism businesses celebrated a win in the first ever virtual awards ceremony held on the Visit York social media channels and via a special live radio broadcast. 

Now returning in March 2022, the Visit York Tourism Awards, sponsored by LNER, will shine a spotlight on excellence, resilience and innovation of York’s tourism industry that has been hit hard during the pandemic. The event will celebrate businesses that continued to provide a high-standard of customer service and quickly and successfully adjusted to change in 2020 and 2021. Eligible winners across a number of categories will be also automatically put forward to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2022. 

Businesses from across the city; from hotels to restaurants, pubs to visitor attractions are being urged to enter – with the deadline Friday 29th October 2021 to submit their winning entries online at www.visityork.org/awards. Winners will be announced at a glittering award ceremony at York Racecourse, compered by the YorkMix Radio presenters Ben Fry and Laura Castle.  

Ashley Young, Senior Marketing and Communications Manager at Make It York, said: “For many years the awards recognised the stars of the tourism industry across the city and celebrated the hard work that goes in to providing first class experiences for visitors. This year, following a difficult period for the industry, we want to celebrate the achievements, resilience and unparalleled excellence of York’s tourism businesses and individuals.  

For winners, the awards are also a fabulous opportunity to showcase their business on the national stage with automatic entry, for many categories, into the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence. We would love to see entries from a wide array of businesses and we are looking forward to celebrating with all the finalists in March.”  

Councillor Darryl Smalley, Executive Member for Culture, Leisure and Communities at the City of York Council, commented: “York’s tourism industry plays a major role in our city’s economy and culture. Between our 2,000 years of history, superb independents and exceptional hospitality; York has a truly unique offering which sets us apart from other cities. Whilst the last 18 months have been difficult for all local businesses, I’m delighted to see residents and visitors return to York to safely enjoy all that our city and the excellent tourism industry has to offer. 

“The Tourism Awards are a great way to celebrate the wonderful work local businesses do for our residents and visitors. I encourage businesses to apply to ensure their efforts can be rightly recognised.” 

A new category for 2022 is the ‘Resilience & Innovation Award’ to honour organisations who have built on their strengths, innovated their businesses and showed incredible resilience during a difficult time for the industry. Another new ‘Unsung Hero’ award is open for individuals working for tourism businesses to shine a light on those not immediately thought of, but nevertheless incredibly high-achieving persons who have gone that one step further to provide excellent service to visitors.  

The Visit York Tourism Awards 2022 will have a total of fifteen award categories for organisations to enter and include:  

● B&B and Guest House of the Year   

● Camping, Glamping and Holiday Park of the Year   

● Experience of the Year   

● Large Hotel of the Year   

● Small Hotel of the Year   

● New Tourism Business of the Year   

● Pub of the Year   

● Self Catering Accommodation of the Year   

● Taste of England Award   

● Large Visitor Attraction of the Year   

● Small Visitor Attraction of the Year   

● Unsung Hero 

● Resilience & Innovation Award 

● Event of the Year* 

● Shop Experience of the Year* 

Once all the entries are in, a panel of independent judges will decide on the final shortlist and winners through a mix of mystery shopping and rigorous analysis against the entry criteria. Businesses can check the eligibility criteria and enter the Visit York Tourism Awards online at www.visityork.org/awards.

All entries must be submitted by 5PM on Friday 29 October 2021. 

*(Visit York only award, not eligible for the
VisitEngland Awards for Excellence entry) 

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