Lake District Interior Design Company & Hotel are the World's Best!
On Thursday 18th January, Lake District based Fidget Design and the Cedar Manor Hotel were presented with two awards at the inaugural UK Hotel Awards 2011, part of the International Hotel Awards, held at London's glitzy Savoy Hotel.
At the event Alison Tordoff, owner of Fidget Design based in the Lake District, Cumbria, discovered that her company had won the highly coveted five star award in the Best UK Hotel Interior category, for its work at the Cedar Manor Hotel, Windermere.
As one of the highest scoring winners from the UK Hotel Awards, Fidget Design and the Cedar Manor were then judged against other winners from around the world to find the ultimate World's Best in each of the 13 award categories.
To round off a perfect evening Fidget Design discovered, much to its delight, that it had also won the top accolade of the World's Best International Hotel Interior, for its work at the luxury Lake District hotel Cedar Manor.
The Cedar Manor Hotel received funding through the Rural Northwest Tourism Connect project, funded through Defra and part financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, for the creation of its Coach House Suite. Rural Northwest Tourism Connect is administered in Cumbria by Cumbria Tourism. The project is raising business performance and driving up design and tourist accommodation standards in Cumbria's serviced accommodation businesses.
Ian Stephens, Managing Director of Cumbria Tourism, said: "For Fidget Design to win both the UK's Best award and the ultimate accolade the World's Best is a great advert for its work at the Cedar Manor Hotel. These awards actively demonstrate that the Lake District, Cumbria, is the World's Best in every sense of the word, taking great pride in our accommodation provision and in the overall visitor experience.''
Mr Stephens added: ‘'We are particularly pleased as the recent work undertaken by Fidget at Cedar Manor Hotel is as a result of funding provided by Cumbria Tourism through the Rural Northwest Tourism Connect scheme, which is highly successful and has already helped a number of our accommodation providers to raise their standards ensuring that we constantly improve and enhance the visitor experience and thereby maintain our position as one of the top destinations of choice in the UK.''
Alison Tordoff, owner of Fidget Design in Windermere said, of the award: "I'm still in shock. It's fantastic for both us and Cedar Manor that we've won two such prestigious accolades. To discover that we have won the award for the World's Best International Hotel Interior is just amazing. Winning both awards shows that the Lake District is right up there in terms of design and in terms of the quality of our accommodation. We are all simply so proud that we have been recognised in this way.''
Notes to Editors:
1: For further information or images of the property, please contact Cumbria Tourism Press Office on 01539 825002 or on pressoffice@cumbriatourism.org for further information about Cedar Manor visit www.cedarmanor.co.uk for further information about Fidget Design visit www.fidgetdesign.com
2: 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 3,000 members. Over 40 million annual visitors to Cumbria contribute more than £2 billion to the local economy and support around 56,500 jobs. To find out more about the work of Cumbria Tourism, visit www.cumbriatourism.org
3: The UK Hotel Awards judging panel consisted of 20 professionals whose collective knowledge of the hospitality industry is second to none. This year's judges include James Bacon, UK account manager of Google; Peter Crome, managing director of Skibo Castle in Scotland; Mike McNamara, of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS); David Dalby, of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Rebecca Johnson, of Bloomberg TV (Hotel Section).
4: Rural Northwest Tourism Connect was established to deliver both quality improvements within accommodation provision, including high-end star grading increases and create new jobs within the tourism sector. The wider benefit to the tourism sector is through guests extending their stay, repeat visits and business profitability increases.
Rural Northwest Tourism Connect is administered within Cumbria by Cumbria Tourism, utilising Rural Development Programme for England funding, delivered through the Northwest Development Agency with Defra as the Managing Authority. The project is part financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas. www.cumbriatourism.org/business-support/rural-nw-tourism-connect.aspx
5: To book accommodation in Cumbria - the Lake District, visit www.golakes.co.uk
