Hampshire Eateries Toast Award Success
A new quality assessment scheme for restaurants, tea rooms, pubs, cafes and other eateries has recently been piloted in two Hampshire districts on behalf of Tourism South East.
Thirty-one food and drink businesses from the Winchester City Council and Test Valley Borough Council districts signed up for the free pilot scheme and underwent a "mystery shopper" assessment in June. The trained assessors considered every aspect of the customer experience including cleanliness, hospitality, service and efficiency, presentation and food quality.
Twenty six businesses were successful in obtaining either the full quality marque or a local produce award and were celebrated at a presentation evening at Winchester Cathedral Café.
Benefits of participating in the Hampshire Hospitality Awards:
- Use of the Hampshire Hospitality marque on leaflets, letterheads and adverts
- Web entry onthe official tourism websites for the districts
- Reduced price advertising in 2007 district visitor guides
- Inclusion in a restaurant list sent to all local accommodation providers
- Hampshire Fare Affiliate membership(for local produce award winners only)
- The opportunity to voice your opinion in an industry consultation questionnaire for Visit Britain, the national body responsible for tourism
- Free training support from Tourism South East
Visit Britain is currently reviewing the local pilot with a view to rolling it out nationally. Project manager Eloise Appleby, who is Head of Cultural Services at Winchester City Council and a member of the Hampshire sub-region committee for Tourism South East said "We are all familiar with the idea of star ratings for B&Bs or hotels which are designed to help visitors decide which accommodation will best suit their needs. By contrast, eating out can potentially amount to a game of chance when you visit a new destination so we felt it was time to introduce a scheme which provided a degree of reassurance to visitors planning their meal out"
A full list of successful businesses can be found at www.visitwinchester.co.uk/site/things-to-do/food-and-drink/hampshire-hospitality-award for more information please contact Sarah Davis at Tourism South East at sdavis@tourismse.com.