Lake District hotel takes Best in England Award
A four-star Lake District hotel has been named the best in England in the country's foremost tourism awards.
Gilpin Lodge Country House on Crook Road, Windermere, won Gold in the Best Small Hotel category.
It is the fifth time in as many years that a Cumbrian tourism business has brought home one of the coveted accommodation accolades at the Enjoy England Awards For Excellence.
The awards are organised by VisitEngland, the national tourism authority, and celebrate the best of English tourism. They promote healthy industry competition and high standards, helping to ensure England's place as a world-class destination.
The winners were due to be revealed tonight (Friday 23rd April) at a special ceremony taking place in Brighton. It was a good night for the Northwest region of England too, with three out of the seven finalists operating in this corner of the country.
The family-run Gilpin Lodge team is owned by husband and wife team John and Christine Cunliffe, and run by son Barney and wife Zoe. It has been in the family for over 20 years and was described by judges as an "elegant 20-bedroom hotel," with service levels that rate "amongst the highest in the country".
Fourteen of the bedrooms lead directly out onto the lodge's beautiful gardens and guests can undergo luxury spa treatments in their own rooms with ‘on-call' therapists.
The hotel qualified to take part in the national competition after winning the hotel category in the Cumbria Tourism Awards 2009, and repeating this success at the England's Northwest Tourism Awards in September 2009.
The other Cumbrian finalist represented at the competition in Brighton was Low Sizergh Barn Farm Shop, Kendal, which brought home the silver award in the Taste of England category for food.
The 46 gold and silver winners were selected from over 100 regional winners submitted by the nine regions of England and were rigorously assessed by independent assessors and a team of judges to make it through to the national final.
The finalists were selected by a panel of tourism industry judges which included previous Gold winners, travel journalists and industry experts.
Ian Stephens, Chief Executive of Cumbria Tourism, said: "Once again Cumbria has demonstrated that it is at the top of its game in the country when it comes to superb places to stay. The accommodation category is the most difficult to win and for Cumbria to have had five winners in this section in the last five years bears testament to the joint work of the industry and Tourist Board in the investment in improving the area's quality standards. We extend our wholehearted congratulations to the team at Gilpin Lodge and also the sterling efforts of Low Sizergh Barn Farm Shop."
The other Gold winners from the Northwest were Jury's Inn Hotel, Liverpool, for Outstanding Customer Service, and Blackpool Illuminations in the Tourism Event category.
Ends
1: For further information please contact Cumbria Tourism Press Office on 01539 825075 or on pressoffice@cumbriatourism.org
2: To download images from the awards evening go to http://archive.grahamjepson.co.uk/c/grahamjepson/gallery/Enjoy-England-Awards-2010-Gold-Winners/G0000.n1YEJ962cc
Silver winners: http://archive.grahamjepson.co.uk/c/grahamjepson/gallery/Enjoy-England-Awards-2010-Silver-Awards/G0000t.TtPGqyAM8
The password for all is "brighton"
3: To contact the winners from Saturday 24th April please
Barney Cunliffe, www.gilpinlodge.co.uk 015394 88818
Alison Park www.lowsizerghbarn.co.uk 01539 560 426
4: Cumbria Tourism is the lead organisation for tourism in the county and is at the heart of the Cumbria Visitor Economy. It is also the largest membership organisation in Cumbria with more than 2,000 members. Over 15 million annual visitors to Cumbria contribute more than £1 billion to the local economy and support around 36,000 jobs. To find out more about the work of Cumbria Tourism, visit www.cumbriatourism.org
