Awards celebrate topWest Midland tourist attractions
THE stars of the region’s tourism industry have been recognised at an annual awards ceremony and will now go on to compete against their peers from around the country.
The third West Midlands Tourism Awards took place in Wolverhampton and crowned winners working in a host of different sectors in places such as Birmingham, Coventry, Shrewsbury and Ironbridge.
Among those celebrated across 14 different categories at Grand Station were the team behind Coventry City of Culture, the famous Belfry hotel and golf resort and a holiday home in historic Ironbridge.
Birmingham’s rejuvenated
Roundhouse, in Sheepcote Street, also scooped gold in the new business category. The event was hosted by Birmingham comedian and writer Shazia Mirza, with entertainment from West Midlands-based musical collective The Peaky Blinders. The awards are organised by destination promotion agency West Midlands Growth Company.
Andrew Lovett, chairman of the West Midlands Tourism
and Hospitality advisory board, said: “The West Midlands Tourism Awards gave us the perfect opportunity to look back on a momentous year for our region and recognise the contribution that our fantastic sector has made in enhancing the West Midlands’ global profile.
“Together, we congratulated the staff and owners at visitor attractions, accommodation and hospitality venues who have helped to highlight to a record number of people from around the world the breadth, depth and distinctiveness of our tourism offer.
“This provides an excellent platform on which to build as tourist volumes continue to recover to their pre-pandemic levels. We acknowledge there remain ongoing challenges for the sector to address but we saw at this year’s awards ceremony we have the talent and ambition to overcome these and continue to make the West Midlands an exciting and popular visitor destination.”
The winners and runnersup automatically qualify for the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence, to be held later this year, where venues will be in with a chance of being crowned national champions.