Carden Park bids for Northwest tourism honour

One of Chester’s top hotels is lining up to take a Northwest award for tourism – competing against venues in Liverpool, Manchester, the Ribble Valley and the Lake District.

The four star Carden Park Hotel, Golf Resort and Spa has been shortlisted in the ‘Business Tourism’ category of England’s Northwest Tourism Awards, which will be decided on Wednesday, September 29.

With conference facilities for up to 400 delegates and a recent £400,000 makeover for the Carden Suite, the hotel is a major destination for local, national and international businesses and recently hosted the Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales’ annual conference, which was attended by Home Secretary Theresa May.

Hamish Ferguson, general manager of Carden Park, said: “We have been shortlisted for the Northwest award after winning the Visit Chester and Cheshire award for Business Tourism for the second consecutive year. These awards are designed to celebrate businesses which have been innovative, improved quality and helped to attract tourism to the area.

“Our success two years running reflects the fact that we have continued to invest both in our team and in the product, with over £5 million spent on improving the hotel rooms and the conference centre.”

The £400,000 invested in the Carden Suite includes the installation of a state of the art Bose sound system, which offers a 3,000 watt performance, a magical 6,000 starlight optical fibre lighting system and nine 60 inch plasma TV screens all around the room.

Hamish added: “In addition to the Carden Suite, the hotel has 17 other function rooms, an experienced events team on hand to assist delegates and event organisers, and an on-site audio-visual company and team building events company, G3, who all deliver exceptional service.”

Additional services for business use at Carden Park include the outdoor activity centre, which can provide team building activities such as the KONG aerial ropes course or quad biking, plus two Championship golf courses offering corporate golf opportunities.

The hotel, which employs more than 300 people, also boasts 196 bedrooms, a spa, award winning restaurants and its own vineyards.

England’s Northwest Tourism Awards ceremony takes place in Lancashire on Wednesday, September 29. As well as receiving a prestigious title and trophy, regional winners will have the opportunity to represent the Northwest in the national awards, organised by VisitEngland in 2011.

Announcing the shortlist, Felicity Goodey, chair of Tourism England’s Northwest, said: “It is important we celebrate the enormous amount of progress Northwest tourism has made in the past decade. This is an industry which earns the Northwest more than £14 billion a year and provides hundreds of thousands of jobs. These awards are celebrating some those responsible for this huge success story.

“This year’s finalists have been able to demonstrate a quality visitor experience that sets the standards for others to follow.”

For more information about facilities at Carden Park Hotel, Gold Resort and Spa visit: cardenpark.co.uk