News
Welcome to news by Bodmin Visitor Information Centre. Keep popping back for news, events and more.
Second Gold Award for Visitor Information Centre
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On Thursday 7th October the team from Bodmin Visitor Information Centre attended the 2010 Cornwall Tourism Awards having been shortlisted alongside Falmouth and Looe, for the title of best tourist information centre in Cornwall. This year’s glittering awards ceremony was held at St Mellion International Resort where the shortlisted businesses in the 15 categories awaited their results.
The team were all smiles when Radio Cornwall’s Daphne Skinnard announced that Bodmin’s Centre had been deemed the best and were awarded the coveted Gold award by the evening’s celebrity speaker, Ben Fogle.
Wendy Wright, Tourism Officer for Bodmin Town Council said “We were totally ecstatic with our Gold award for the second consecutive year. People ask me what is our winning formula and all I can say is that I have simply got a fantastic team. This award means so much and is a great thank you to all the staff involved”
This latest win adds to the Bodmin centre’s record of five Gold awards and 3 silvers. Falmouth Tourist Information Centre was awarded the Silver and Looe the bronze.
For more information on the awards and details of the other winners visit www.cornwalltourismawards.co.uk
Have your cake and eat it!
Local people flooded the Shire Hall on Friday 24th September to attend the first ever coffee morning held in the building.
With a range of scrumptious cakes on offer; some donated from local people, some from the Shire Hall’s staff and steaming hot tea and coffee available, the coffee morning was a great success. In total from cake and raffle sales the team at the Shire Hall raised £216 which is in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support as part of its Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning event.
The staff at the Shire Hall would like to thank everyone who came along and gave their support and donations and helped to make the event so successful.
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Bronze, Silver or Gold for the Shire Hall’s Information Centre?
It’s yet another exciting and nail biting time for the staff at Bodmin Town Council’s Visitor Information Centre. Visit Cornwall has just announced its final shortlist in this year’s Cornwall Tourism Awards.
Bodmin’s Visitor Information Centre has been named as one of the top three information centres in the county alongside Looe and Falmouth. It is just a question now of which gong goes to who. Wendy Wright, Tourism Officer said “Being shortlisted in the Cornwall Tourism Awards is so important to us. It is a real boost to my team and a great thank you for all the hard work that they have put in throughout the year. “The team from the information centre will be attending the awards ceremony on 7th October at St Mellion International Resort where TV Presenter of Animal Park and Countryfile fame, Ben Fogle, will be presenting the awards. Success at the Cornwall Tourism Awards is not new to the team having won Gold 4 times and Silver on 3 occasions. For more information on the awards visit www.cornwalltourismawards.co.uk
We need your face so far...Winners Announced!
As part of Bodmin’s Shire Hall’s summer events programme, the staff invited its visitors to take part in its competition to create a giant picture of all the faces of its visitors.
Wendy Wright, Tourism Officer said “It has been lovely to see so many of our visitors embrace the challenge and put pencil to paper and create some fantastic self portraits” Visitors could use pencils, glitter, pens, feathers, glitter and hair to create their masterpieces. Wendy said “It wasn’t just the children who got involved, lots of the grown ups had a go too!”
Deputy Mayor, Councillor Ralph Solomons had the difficult job of judging the top three faces out of the 200 or so entries. Councillor Solomons commented “It was obvious to see that a lot of effort had been put into the pictures and to pick my three favourites was exceptionally difficult but my sincere congratulations goes to all the winners”
The winning faces were by 7 year old Beth Townsend from Seaford, 43 year old Graham Saunders from Bath and 16 year old Evie Farnham from Norfolk.
The faces will be on display at the Shire Hall until Monday 20th September in the foyer. The Shire Hall’s next creative activity starts on Saturday 23rd October when visitors are invited to get in the Halloween spirit and create a spooky monster or Jack-o-Lantern.
WINNER - 16 Year Old Evie Farnham from Norfolk
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WINNER - 7 Year Old Beth Townsend from Seaford
And last but not least WINNER, 43 year old Graham Saunders from Bath.
We need your face so far...
With just under two weeks to go in Bodmin Visitor Information Centre's "We need your Face" competition, portraits of the information centre's visitors have literally been flooding in. Below is just some of the information centre's current favourites!
We like this design with the cute little bumble bee by 13 year old, Alex from Newhey
We love the way 13 year old Chloe from Ireland has used glitter and wool to give her portrait texture.
We think that 10 year old Maddi from Swansea has made such a lovely smiley picture of herself.
We need your face competition runs until Saturday 4th September. It is free to take part and 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed pictures will be selected and awarded prizes.
Good Luck!
Shire Hall Scoops Two Cornwall Tourism Awards!
From left to right - Clare Trudgeon, Dawn Roberts, Monique Jeffrey-Jones, Debbie Noyce and Wendy Wright
Bodmin Visitor Centre is top of the pops - and that's official. The centre and staff have scooped the top tourism ‘Oscar’ for Visitor Centre of the Year, 2009, at the prestigious annual Cornwall Tourism Awards, held at the Headland Hotel in Newquay. Beating off competition from across the County, Bodmin proved they are the best at giving all visitors to the Information Centre what they want – good, up-to-date information and exceptional levels of customer care.
Being the winner of the Cornwall Tourism Best TIC Award is not a new experience to the team at Bodmin. They have entered seven out of the eight years the Awards have been running – winning the gold, four times and the silver, three times.
“It was very much a team effort,” said Wendy Wright, tourism officer. “We have great esprit de corps and always put our customers at the centre of everything we do.”
“The staff are always looking for ways to drive up their standards. This summer one of the most popular improvements to the VIC services was the creation of a range of leaflets on free and purse-friendly days out. ”
But the success didn’t end there. The Courtroom Experience visitor attraction which is a re-creation of a real Victorian murder trial, was awarded the Bronze award for Best small Visitor Attraction in Cornwall, with Pendennis Castle taking the Silver award and Penlee House in Penzance taking the Gold.
Wendy said “This was the first time the Courtroom Experience had been entered into the Tourism Awards so to be awarded the bronze was such good news. Bodmin has really been put on the tourist map.”
The team at the Shire Hall including Wendy Wright, Debbie Noyce, Clare Trudgeon, Monique Jeffrey-Jones and Dawn Roberts are now eagerly awaiting news to see whether the Visitor Centre has been short listed in the regional South West awards.
