Several Burnham-On-Sea and Brean tourism businesses have reached the finals of this year’s sought-after Bristol, Bath and Somerset Tourism Awards.
Holiday Resort Unity are finalists in two categories for ‘Holiday Park of the Year’ and ‘Dog Friendly Business of the Year’.
Brean’s Warren Farm Holiday Centre is a finalist in the ‘Tourism Innovation Award’ category, and Brean’s Sandy Glade Holiday Park has also been named a finalist for ‘Holiday Park of the Year’.
Eat: Burnham, the organisers of Burnham’s food festivals, has been named a finalist in both the ‘Tourism Event/Festival of the Year’ and the ‘Responsible, Ethical and Sustainable Tourism Award’ categories.
Holiday Resort Unity Director Alan House said: “It is a great achievement to reach the final three in both categories that we entered, especially after picking up awards in previous years.”
“It shows that we are consistent in what we offer and are also continuing to develop and improve across all areas of the business. We would, of course, like to thank all of our staff for their commitment and hard work throughout the year, we obviously could not run such an operation without them.”
Burnham’s food festivals have been named a finalist in the two categories and Eat: Burnham’s Bev Milner Simonds said: “We have worked really hard this year on our sustainability goals and to be finalists in the Responsible, Ethical and Sustainability Tourism category is a wonderful endorsement of our producers’ efforts and our stretching targets. We have tough competition in the Best Event/Festival category and hope to retain our Gold award.”
Meanwhile, Wall Eden Farm Holidays in East Huntspill has been named a finalist in the ‘Self Catering Accommodation of the Year’ category and it has been highly commended in the ‘Access and Inclusivity’ and ‘Glamping and Alternative Accommodation of the Year’ categories. Its glamping pods and yurts are pictured below.
This year’s awards have seen a 30% increase in entries over the previous year. There are 84 finalists with an additional 18 Highly Commended.
The finalists will have to wait until the Tourism Awards ceremony at the Apex Hotel in Bath on Thursday 15th November to find out whether they will win Bronze, Silver or Gold. The awards will be hosted by Laura Rawlings of BBC Radio Bristol, and Phil de Glanville, a former Bath rugby captain, with guest speaker Giles Adams from What’s On Somerset.
Nell Barrington, awards organiser, said: “I am thrilled that so many businesses have taken the time to enter and look forward to celebrating with them in November. The awards really showcase the diversity of the tourism offering in this area and it is great to give recognition to those businesses that truly go above and beyond to ensure visitors have a great time.” The full list of finalists is available here.
