Additional Information

The awards have just celebrated their 25^th year with another stunning night held on 18^th June at Motherwell Concert Hall. It was a tremendous evening which saw eleven awards won in a range of categories from Lanarkshire’s Best New Business, Excellence in Customer Service and of course the John Brinkins Best Visitor Experience Award, which is named in honour of a good friend of the industry who worked out of North Lanarkshire Council.

Tourism businesses are always encouraged to apply, not only for the tourism award but for any appropriate award and in recent years a number of tourism businesses have been shortlisted and won in these other categories.

The application process is generally around 7 questions and from these initial submissions, a shortlist of three finalists is drawn up. These three companies then present to a judging panel and receive an invite to the evening prior to the winner being announced on the night.

Whilst the format of the awards for next year has still to be confirmed, we are able to share with you the form that was used for this year’s awards,

You will find out more about the 2018 Awards on the website at http://chooselanarkshire.com/business/lanarkshire-business-excellence-awards-2018/

Following on from a presentation on the subject of Accessible Tourism made by VisitScotland’s Diversity & Equality Manager, Chris McCoy (since awarded an MBE but not because she worked with us!) it was decided that Lanarkshire should embrace this growing and hugely significant market and the Accessible Lanarkshire project was initiated.

As we were told at the meeting, the value of the ‘purple pound’ was highlighted, a term used to describe the spending power of disabled people and their families.

Globally 15% of the population are disabled and 80% of them are of working age and they are the fastest growing minority group.

Spending by disabled people is worth £249 Billion a year to the UK economy ( 2017 BBC News presentation) data so if the moral argument for getting ourselves in order was not reason enough, the financial element is there to reinforce the desire. 

You can find out more information from the VisitScotland information guide which is located at    http://www.visitscotland.org/pdf/EasyDoesItJune2016.pdf and was updated last year.

It’s good business

• The UK market is ageing. It is estimated that by 2025 more than a third of the UK’s population will be over 55. People are living longer and staying active until much later in life. (Source: VisitBritain)
• In 2015, more than six million people over the age of 55 visited Britain from overseas, representing almost one in six of our 36 million inbound visitors. (Source: VisitBritain)
• There is correlation between ageing and disability. Impairments and disability increase substantially after the age of 45. (Source: www.employers-forum.co.uk)
• The spending power of disabled people in the UK alone is estimated to be worth £80 billion. (Source: www.dwp.gov.uk)

What has been done

The Accessible Lanarkshire project has now ensured that the vast majority (90% of hotels and 90% of visitor attractions) of Lanarkshire tourism venues have a full access statement which is available on Disabled Go Website and via individual listings on VisitLanarkshire.com website, to allow for greater information for tourists and also raise awareness amongst these businesses.

A link to the Disable Go website is https://www.disabledgo.com/organisations/visit-lanarkshire/main#venues