Visitor Information Provider of the Year

Headline Sponsor Category Sponsor

Visitor Information Provider of the Year

Please give details here of the individual who will be the point of contact for the awards.
Contact Name:
TIC/VIC/Business name:
Address:
Telephone:
Mobile:
Email (for us to contact you):
Website
Twitter
PR Contact Details
(if different from above)
TIC/VIC Details
What are your opening hours:
Give details of any periods the centre/ service is closed:
What is your location: Stand alone or shared service?
(ie within Town Hall/Library etc.)
How many staff do you employ:
(Show full time & part time inc volunteers)
What was your visitor footfall for the last calendar year?
How many email enquiries did you deal with?
How many telephone enquiries?
Give a brief history of your TIC/VIC (max 200 words):
Give a brief history of your TIC/VIC and describe the full range and nature of the service you provide, and the overall visitor/customer experience.
1: Your Commitment to Excellence (max 300 words):
Describe your values, philosophy and commitment to excellence, and tell us what makes you stand out as one of the very best TICs/ VICs in the South East? What is the unique selling point of your TIC/VIC?
Previous Awards:
Please list all Awards in the last two years
Title of Award / Level (eg Gold) / Awarding Organisation / Year
2: Partnerships (max 300 words):
Judges will be looking for evidence that the provider is part of an integrated approach to visitor servicing ie by being part of a bigger picture and not working in isolation.
The visitor information provider should give examples of community and partnership working, ie working with others, organising/attending events to engage local people, sharing best practice and demonstrating how these have benefited their customers, the destination and or region as well as themselves.
Examples of partnerships/community engagement may be working together with the industry and/or local community to promote the area and improve the overall visitor welcome.
Give details and examples of any working partnerships (where applicable) and how this has benefitted the services you provide to visitors.
3: Outstanding Customer Service (max 300 words):
Judges will be looking for clear evidence of professionalism and commitment to customer service. The entry should demonstrate how staff and management fully capitalise upon the resources available to them in order to meet and exceed their customers’ needs and expectations.
Judges will be looking for evidence of comprehensive and up to date literature. Knowledge of the local and regional area must be evident.
Entrants could consider how they interpret management information; how they link their revenue raising activities to enhancing customer service; how they utilise new technology to improve information provision and communication with their stakeholders; and how they have developed their service in line with customers’ requests and feedback.
Presentation of any related website and content will also be considered, as well as evidence of a high level of customer care through the handling of customer correspondence e.g. telephone calls and emails.
Explain your customer care values and describe what action has been taken during the last two years to ensure that your services meet and exceed customer needs and expectations. Highlight activity demonstrating good practice innovation and any developments and improvements to service. Give examples where staff have gone beyond the call of duty.
4: Staff Training & Development (max 200 words):

Please detail your staff training and development values and philosophy for yourself and any staff you employ, including volunteers. What staff training and development is offered? Is there a training policy in place? How has training benefited your services?

5: Accessibility and Equality (max 100 words):
The judges will look at how the information provider ensures that both its premises and services are available to all, and what provision is made for a range of customers such as disabled people, older people and families.
Examples of an inclusive approach and initiatives that have been taken to improve access, these could be for example, the provision of information being made available in different formats; organising the public areas in order to assist less mobile visitors; attendance by staff on Welcome All or an equivalent course in order to increase disability awareness.

Please detail your commitment to promoting to and accommodating visitors with special requirements (this includes the elderly, parents with pushchairs, people who are visually and hearing impaired, special dietary requirements as well those with physical disabilities). Give examples of any facilities and services you provide for disabled people and how you promote these facilities. Have any of your staff attended Welcome All training or equivalent? If possible, give examples of how you and/or your staff go above and beyond legal compliance requirements.

Checklist
Evidence might include:

Certificates of accessibility training eg Welcome All
Testimonials/examples of how you have looked after a customer with access needs
Examples of how you promote your accessibility
Your Access Statement: How well it meets legislative requirements, whether it addresses all customer sectors and disabilities, its language and ease of comprehension, information about local facilities and tourism destinations, use of photos, diagrams, etc
In what alternative formats can you provide information?
How easy is it to find out about your accessibility - is there a link from your home page?
Images of facilities/services for customers with access requirements
Accessibility via road and public transport (downloadable maps) and to wifi, mobile signal etc

6: Sustainability (max 100 words):
6.1: Sustainability. Give specific examples of how your TIC/VIC is embracing sustainability. In particular in the following areas (note all areas must be covered)

The local economy (local purchasing, local produce. Employing local people, supporting other local businesses)
Residents and visitors (forging links, local community groups or schools, connecting with charities, encouraging access for all in employment and or visitors)
The environment (managing energy, waste or water consumption)

6.2: Sustainability. Please describe how you communicate your efforts to make your TIC/VIC more sustainable and/or encourage visitors and local businesses to adopt sustainable behaviours/ practices?
Checklist
Evidence might include:

Details of actions undertaken
Media coverage of work done
Your sustainability policy/ statements.
Promoting public transport, car free days out
Links to any web pages relating to sustainability
Certificates of relevant sustainability awards

7: Creative marketing/Improvements and developments (max 300 words):
How do you promote the services of the visitor information centre to potential visitors?

Include information on where ideas for promotions arose, what you have carried out and any evaluation of success. Include print, web and social media activity. Also what improvements you have made to the visitor experience in the last two years eg tours etc.

Checklist
Evidence might include:

Any marketing plan/ materials
Details of packages you have created/partnerships
Images of innovative promotional campaigns you have been involved in.
Weblinks to online marketing activities
Evidence of how you optimise your website to achieve maximum impact
Cuttings of how you engage with visitors/potential visitors through social media, blogs, twitter etc
Examples of how you use customer testimonials and feedback
Evidence of how you measure the success of your marketing campaigns

Judges will separately look at websites on PCs and tablets, along with use of social media etc

Please return your entry as a Word document along with any supporting evidence (max one attachment of 5mb) by email to before the closing date given on the website.

Future communications will be from Nell Barrington, Services for Tourism Ltd, who is managing the Beautiful South Awards on behalf of Tourism South East. Nell’s email address is: so please add this address to your address book to avoid communications being treated as Spam/Junk. If you do not add this address and are awaiting news please ensure you check your Spam/Junk folders to see if news is being filtered out.

PLEASE TICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

□I am a destination partner of Tourism South East entitled to free entry to the Awards.

□I am not a destination partner and understand that I will be invoiced an entry fee of £65 plus VAT. Payment must be made before the closing date otherwise your awards entry cannot be submitted for judging.Your fee entitles you to entrance into two categories in the Awards programme – plus the Sustainability and Access categories.