The Holiday Inn Winchester has won a gold award in the 2021/22 Beautiful South Awards for Excellence.
After being selected by a judging panel as one of the three best entrants in the ‘Resilience and Innovation’ category, the Holiday Inn Winchester was named a gold winner at the award ceremony at the Grand Hotel in Brighton last night (25 April 2022).
The entry was based on the efforts during the Coronavirus pandemic in working with the NHS. Not only did the hotel open its doors as a rehabilitation centre during the lockdown, it also went on to become a vaccination centre helping the NHS deliver thousands of jabs to local residents.
Initial judging was based on information provided by the hotel and then the judges looked at online presence in how the hotel encouraged and inspired visitors as well as feedback from reviews and across social media.
Louis Rigney, General Manager of the Holiday Inn Winchester was understandably please to receive the accolade. He said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have won this award after the overwhelming difficulties of the past two years.
“We had some really tough decisions to make at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. We could have easily closed our doors, but we wanted to be innovative and find good solutions to the problems we all faced. This is why we engaged with the NHS and it was really pleasing to be able to help so many people in our local community. From those needing care and then vaccines from the NHS to those we managed to keep employed within our own business.
“This award is for everyone who worked so hard during the most difficult of times and I thank them all for their efforts.”
Fran Downton, Chief Executive of Tourism South East, said “The Beautiful South Awards is a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase the very best that the region has to offer. The strength of our winners is testament to the incredible standards and unwavering quality of these exceptional businesses, despite the challenges.”
The Beautiful South Tourism Awards for Excellence are part of the Visit England Awards and as a gold winner of the ‘Resilience and Innovation Award’ category, the hotel has been selected to represent the area in the Visit England Tourism for Excellence Awards. The winners of the national award will be announced at a ceremony at the Library of Birmingham in June.
