‘Visit Isle of Wight’ has won a Gold Award at the Beautiful South Awards 2015 hosted by Tourism South East. This number one spot was awarded to Visit Isle of Wight’s ‘Isle of Wight Visitor Centre and Travel Ambassador Scheme’ based at Newport’s Guildhall in the Visitor Information Provider of the Year category.
David Thornton, CEO of Visit Isle of Wight commented: “This is a truly remarkable result considering the Isle of Wight was without any visitor centres for a number of years. In 2013 VIOW started to create a private sector network of tourism points on the Island and the Visitor Centre was only opened 6 months ago. It’s a fantastic achievement”.
A key innovation of The Isle of Wight Visitor Centre are the Travel Ambassadors who work both in the centre and across the Isle of Wight to inspire visitors to truly explore the Island. Experts in car free travel, they promote using sustainable transport to really experience the Island.
Zoe Stroud, LSTF Visitor Project Manager, Visit Isle of Wight, said: “Winning this award is positive proof that our travel ambassadors are doing a fantastic job. They are out and about greeting visitors with a warm welcome as well as supplying the information that visitors need to get the most out of their holiday on the Island”.
John Metcalfe,newly appointed chief executive of the Isle of Wight Council, said: “I am very pleased to hear of Visit Isle of Wight’s success which is well deserved and builds on its strong track record of achievement. We are proud that through partnership working with the council, VIOW has been able to bring the Guildhall back into public use in such a positive and award-winning way. I’d like to extend my congratulations and thanks to the team at VIOW for all dedication and hard work that has been recognised by this award.”