Halton Business and Tourism Awards 2010
Now in its second year, the Halton Business and Tourism Awards enjoyed another successful evening on 26th February, when nearly 200 people celebrated the borough’s top business & tourism success stories at the De Vere Daresbury Park Hotel.
The Awards are organised jointly by the Runcorn and Widnes Tourism Business Network and Halton Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise with support from the Council and our local tourist board, The Mersey Partnership. This year, the main sponsor was Virgin Trains and their generous support ensured that the evening, compered by Pete Pinnington from Wire FM, was on track to recognise the nominees’ outstanding achievements.
On the night, the 5 tourism awards were spread across the hotels and attractions. Paul Crompton from De Vere Daresbury Park Hotel, who won the ‘Outstanding Young Person 16 – 24 years’ category, was praised by the judge as a positive role model for this age group.
Chris Thompson, from Holiday Inn Runcorn, won the award for ‘Outstanding Customer Service’ and will now represent Halton at The Mersey Partnership Annual Tourism Awards in June. Her obvious enthusiasm and love of her job impressed the judge.
Catalyst Science Discovery Centre took home two awards; ‘Team of the Year’ and ‘Family Friendly Assistant’ which went to Sue Halliday. Sue clearly demonstrated the awareness and skills to understand the needs of the family market. Both the Council’s own Promotions & Tourism Team and the Sales and Information Team from the Brindley were also in the running for the Team award. However, despite them both impressing the judge with their enthusiasm, knowledge and excellent communication skills, Catalyst just pipped them at the post!
Irene Rutter is a Visitor Guide at Daresbury Church and her commitment and passion to this unpaid role was regarded as ‘truly admirable’ by her judge who voted her the winner of the ‘Unseen Hero/Volunteer’ category.
The top business award, Halton Business of the Year, was voted for via an on-line poll conducted through the Chamber of Commerce’s website and was won by Arriva Bus Depot, Runcorn, which recently gained Investor in People status,
Cllr Rob Polhill, Executive Board Member for Tourism said "It is pleasing to see what an array of talent we have in Halton's business and tourism community."
Jules Burgess-Wilson, chair of the Tourism Business Network, added ‘Not only are the awards highly deserved, I know the quality of nominations was superb
We have some great people in Halton of whom we should be very proud.”