Visitor Information Service of the Year

Headline Sponsor Category Sponsor

hoseasons.co.uk cata.co.uk

Visitor Information Service of the Year

This award is for visitor information providers that provide visitors with an excellent standard of customer service and appropriate information. This should

be done through face to face contact as well as utilising social media and information technology but must include responding to individual enquiries rather

than just information provision. To enter this award your business must offer visitors an exceptional standard of service.

If you won gold in the VisitEngland Awards 2018 in this category you are not eligible to enter this year. If you have won gold in this category in the South West for two or

more years we’d advise considering a different award or offering to help us with judging.

Please give details of the person we should contact with regard to this entry. Note that the email given here will be the email address we will use for all future correspondence.Contact name:VIC/TIC/service name (that may be used in future publicity):Full business address:

County:Postcode:Telephone number:Main contact email address: Twitter:Website:Details of any other websites you would like us to look at regarding your entry:

When is your TIC/VIC/service closed?

The judging will be based on this entry form and we will also look at your website (on desktop, mobile and tablet), use of social media, what visitors are saying about you and how you manage your online reputation.

If there is any other information (not available online) that you would like to include, that illustrates points made in your entry, please compile all the information into one document and email a word or pdf document no larger than 5MB with your entry. If more than one document is sent or it is larger than 5MB it will not be sent to the judges.

Please provide complete answers to all the questions, using the checklists to guide you; if you leave them blank you will not receive a score for that question. At the end of each question please include web links, if you have them, to support your answer; note these are not included in the word count.

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How long you have been operating as a business?

How many staff do you employ (full and part time, including volunteers and yourselves)?

Please give a brief description of your VIC/TIC/service (max 200 words).

TYPE ANSWER HERE

1. How has business been over the last 12 months and how does it compare with previous years (please state visitor numbers if available) (max 200 words).

TYPE ANSWER HERE

ChecklistIn your answer think about the following:□ Whether visitor numbers have gone up, or down, and why?□ If relevant any products, packages, partnerships or promotions you have

implemented to improve visitor numbers

2. Please list any awards, accreditations and accolades achieved in the last two years. Include title, organising body, level and date achieved.

TYPE ANSWER HERE

3. What makes your TIC/VIC/service special and why should you win this award (max 300 words)?

TYPE ANSWER HERE

Checklist□ What makes you different from your competitors and worthy of an award?

4. With regard to your customer service what do you do to ensure your visitors have a memorable time when they are with you (max 300 words)?

TYPE ANSWER HERE

Checklist□ Detail what you do to exceed your visitors’ expectations?□ How do you gather and use feedback?

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5. What improvements and/or developments have you made to your TIC/VIC to improve your customers’ experience within the last 2 years (max 300 words)?

TYPE ANSWER HERE

Checklist □ Examples could include facilities, new experiences etc□ Was it a result of customer feedback? □ What has been the impact eg % increase in positive feedback, sales etc.

6. What facilities and services do you offer to ensure that your TIC/VIC is inclusive and accessible to all (max 300 words)?

TYPE ANSWER HERE

Checklist□ Details of any specific training undertaken eg Welcome All□ In what alternative formats can you provide information about your business? □ How do you promote the accessibility of your establishment? Is there a link from

your home page to information eg to an accessibility guide with images? Find out more about accessibility guides here visitbritain.org/writing-accessibility-guide

□ Does your website have information on accessibility via road and public transport (downloadable maps), wifi, mobile signal etc

□ Don’t forget anything you do with regard to sensory, auditory, dietary and allergen requirements.

□ For more information Visit England have ten tips to be more inclusive here visitbritain.org/sites/default/files/vb-corporate/top_10_tips_inclusive_tourism.pdf

7. What steps have you taken to be more sustainable, ethical and responsible eg reducing your environmental impact, supporting your local economy/community, maximising employee benefits and how has this benefited your business (max 300 words)?

TYPE ANSWER HERE

Checklist□ Do you use local staff, suppliers, services, products eg food and drink etc?□ What have you done regarding re-using, recycling, reducing - energy use, waste,

water, plastics etc, using eco friendly/fair-trade/energy efficient products etc?□ Do you encourage your staff/visitors to get involved eg feedback, suggestion box,

using public transport, reuse towels etc?

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□ How do you promote your actions to visitors/staff? □ How do you work with the local community and charities?□ Do you offer employment advice and work experience to schools and colleges?□ If you have staff do you pay the National Living Wage?□ How do you promote other local businesses, services, events, attractions?□ Find out how to maximise your sustainability here visitbritain.org/maximising-

your-sustainability

8. What innovative marketing have you done to attract new and repeat business and what was the result eg increased visitor numbers, sales etc (max 300 words)?

TYPE ANSWER HERE

Checklist□ Detail any packages you offer or marketing partnerships with other businesses □ Give examples of innovative promotional campaigns□ Investments in film, photography or VR□ Upgrades to your website/online booking etc□ Innovative use of social media□ Include links to online marketing activities and PR

9. Have you (and your staff if appropriate) undertaken any training in the past two years which has resulted in improved customer service (max 300 words)?

TYPE ANSWER HERE

Checklist□ This could include courses, workshops, conferences, networking events, staff

briefing, online courses etc □ Give details of any customer service awards, accolades or accreditation you have

received.

What to do now

□ Please return your entry as a WORD document along with any supporting evidence (max one attachment of less than 5MB) by email to awards@services4tourism.co.uk before the closing date given on the website.

□ Future communications will be from Services for Tourism Ltd, who manage the Tourism Awards. Their email address is awards@services4tourism.co.uk. Please add this address to your address book, to avoid communications being treated as Spam/Junk; if you do not add this address and are awaiting news please ensure you check your Spam/Junk folders to see if news is being filtered out.

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□ We will contact the email address given on this entry form so please ensure that this is the correct address for all future correspondence.

□ We reserve the right to split or merge categories if the volume or diversity of entrants warrants it. We also reserve the right to move entries from one category to another should this result in a better ‘category match’. Should either of these changes occur we will consult with all businesses affected.

□ All entrants will receive feedback. We will arrange visits (mystery visits where possible) to the top scoring entries. In general we will try to visit or mystery shop as many businesses as we can.

□ For entrants that are nominated to represent the region in the VisitEngland awards your entry is taken as agreement that we may share our mystery shop reports with the VisitEngland judges.

□ By submitting this completed form to us you agree to be bound to our terms and conditions of entry [terms-of-entry]. Any data you provide will be handled in accordance with our privacy policy [privacy-policy]. We reserve the right to amend our terms of entry and privacy policy from time to time, and when we do those new versions will be provided on our website. The most up to date version of any terms/policies hosted on our site will bind you and us.

All entry forms are copyright Services for Tourism Ltd 2018.

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