Plum Festival scoops tourism award

Buy photos » Pershore Plum Festival won the best tourism and festival category at the Worcestershire Welcome Awards.

PERSHORE Plum Festival and the Cotswold Conference Centre have both scooped awards after being recognised for their excellence in the county again.

The conference centre, based at the Farncombe Estate near Broadway, won the business tourism award for the second year in a row and was highly commended in the sustainable tourism category at last Thursday's (October 18) Worcestershire Welcome Awards ceremony.

Organisers of the popular Pershore Plum Festival also had reason to celebrate after winning the best tourism event and festival award for the second year running.

The event was organised by Destination Worcestershire and each finalist was selected on the basis of customer nominations. Both will now go through to VisitEngland's national Awards for Excellence.

Angela Tidmarsh, organiser of the Pershore Plum Festival said it gave the the committee inspiration for next year.

"This news has given everyone associated with the event a tremendous boost and a renewed enthusiasm looking forward to 2013, and hopefully our hat trick of awards," she said.

"Of course we’re now through to the national finals and up against events such as Glastonbury Festival and the Notting Hill Carnival – but we’re not scared, we will do whatever we can to give them all a run for their money.

"I truly hope that all the promotion and hype encompassing this award will mean that Pershore, its surrounding area and local businesses see a marked benefit in being associated with the Pershore Plum Festival."

All of the winners were presented with plaques and all the finalists received a framed certificate.

Richard Howdle, operations manager at Cotswold Conference Centre, was delighted to add the accolade to several others it has won in the past 12 months.

"It has been an incredible year for us, winning numerous awards at local, regional and national levels," he said.

"The staff are rightly very proud of these accolades. As well as a morale boost, entering these categories is one of the ways that we constantly strive to maintain and drive up our performance by looking to improve each year."

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