North West Tourism Awards

The winners of the North West Tourism Awards are

• Outstanding Contribution to Tourism Award – Nigel Haworth, Northcote, near Blackburn
• Large Hotel of the Year - The Lowry Hotel, Manchester
• Small Hotel of the Year – Gilpin Lodge Country House Hotel, Windermere
• Bed and Breakfast of the Year – The Ashton, Lancaster
• Large Visitor Attraction of the Year – Imperial War Museum North, Manchester
• Small Visitor Attraction of the Year – Arley Hall & Gardens, Northwich, Cheshire
• Self Catering Holiday of the Year – Hall Hills, Dalston, near Carlisle
• Holiday Park of the Year – Castlerigg Hall Caravan and Camping Park, Keswick, Cumbria
• Excellence in Business Tourism – Arena and Convention Centre, Liverpool
• Taste of England’s Northwest – Low Sizergh Barn Farm Shop, Kendal, Cumbria
• Tourism Experience of the Year – Farmaggedon, near Ormskirk, Lancashire
• Excellence in Customer Service – Christina Dixon, Jurys Inn, Liverpool
• Sustainable Tourism Award – Arena and Convention Centre, Liverpool
• Tourism for All – Kerridge End Holiday Cottages, Macclesfield, Cheshire
• Tourism Event of the Year – Blackpool Illuminations
• Public Space Award – Pier Head Public Realm and Canal Link, Liverpool
• Tourist Information Centre of the Year – Wigan TIC
• Travel Journalist of the Year – Stephen McClarence, The Observer

Free courses for those at risk of redundancy

The Manchester College is launching a new programme designed to help people affected by the risk of redundancy due to the economic downturn. This programme is completely free to any employee that has received notification of the risk of redundancy from their employer.

Delegates can attend three one day short courses chosen from a menu of IT and

office skills. They also get the opportunity to attend an additional half-day employability skills session, which will cover CV writing and practice job searching online. 'Closed' courses can also be arranged specifically for employers that have a number of staff that would like to attend.

Courses available include Excel, Word, Powerpoint, presentation skills and professional customer service skills.

For further details please contact the Business Support Team on 0161 920 4466 or bst@themanchestercollege.ac.uk

Train to Gain with The Manchester College

The Manchester College is a Train to Gain supplier. Train to Gain has been designed specifically to meet employers' training needs. Through this scheme employees may be able to access FREE training to help them gain a nationally recognised qualification. In addition to improving performance at work, a Train to Gain qualification might also enable employees to take on increased responsibilities.

Courses are available in a range of subject areas including office based skills, IT, customer service, hospitality, health and social care, retail and sales, and construction.

For further information on this scheme please contact a member of the Business Support Team on 0161 920 4466 or email bst@themanchestercollege.ac.uk

Manchester to host TUC conference.

Manchester is set for a multi-million pound boost after clinching the TUC conference for next year. It is a major coup for the city and will bring almost 4,000 visitors over three days next September, generating more than £2m in revenue. The conference will take place at Manchester Central, formerly G-MEX, and the Radisson and Hilton hotels are bidding to be the conference headquarters, with a major exhibitor also taking over the Midland Hotel

CityCo announce priorities for Manchester City Centre 2009-12.

City Strategic Plan – CityCo establishes priorities

CityCo is the not for profit company with the central aim of improving and promoting Manchester City Centre so that businesses can prosper. Their business priorities for 2009-2012 are:

1. Getting the basics of the operation right to deliver an improved customer service experience.
2. Marketing the City Centre, to attract people to the city
3. Providing the real picture (data and measurement) of how the City Centre is performing to help provide the catalyst for change.
4. Representing a broad church of stakeholders, to enable them to make a positive difference to Manchester City Centre.
5. Striving for constant improvement, to achieve world class city centre status.

These priorities have key milestones and objectives. If you would like to read more click http://www.cityco.com/strategy.php

Manchester wins "Airport of the Year 2009"

The Travel Trade Gazette Awards are "the industry’s Oscars" and Manchester Airport beat London Luton, Southampton and Birmingham Airports to win the top prize.

The award follows the unveiling of Manchester Airport’s £80 million redevelopment across Terminals 1 and 2 earlier this year including £25 million to transform security.

“We are extremely proud to have secured such a highly acclaimed award which is a real tribute to the efforts of the 19,000 people who work at Manchester Airport”, said Andrew Cornish, Manchester Airport’s Managing Director.

“Travel agents are this industry’s experts so to receive this recognition from them is praise indeed. The airport of the year award recognises everyone’s commitment to creating an unrivalled experience for our passengers across every aspect of their journey through the airport.”

Airports were judged on their facilities, customer service standards, investment, innovation, travel trade relations, business strategy, environmental performance and commitment to their local communities.

Manchester Science Festival Programme

The full programme for the Science Festival has now been revealed and can be view at the website www.manchestersciencefestival.com

There are plenty of family friendly events and some aimed more at the adult audiences, from exploring the universe at a family fun day at Manchester Museum to Richard Wiseman discussing the science of luck or the paranormal. Many of the events are free but require online booking.

Manchester Literature Festival

With everything from Football Detectives to Darwin-inspired poetry; from a Rainy City Stories tour to a cartooning workshop for all the family, there’s sure to be something to spark your imagination.

Featuring Martin Amis, Simon Armitage, Kate Atkinson, Eoin Colfer, Marilyn Hacker, Michelle Magorian, Val McDermid, Jimmy McGovern, Jeff Noon, Ruth Padel, Frederic Raphael, Fay Weldon, Guo Yue and many others.

The festival runs 15-25 October 2009.

Visit the festival website for full programme details or email admin@manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk to order a brochure.

Free Concierge Desk Jotter Maps

Kate Harrison the new Chief Exec at CityCo has commissioned thousands of highly desirable jotter maps for concierges and information desks. If you need to show clients or customers where something is in the city centre contact CityCo for your jotter pads. Available later this autumn.

Birmingham busy this summer

I was impressed to see Birmingham Hippodrome operating straight through the summer this year providing the folk of Birmingham and the West Midlands with night out opportunities even in the height of August. Full marks for bold programming. I hear business was strong throughout August despite Brian May being mown down by Roger Taylors drum riser on the opeining night of We Will Rock You! Can Manchester develop a summer experience that follows MIF and the end of the football season?

Are you struggling to justify your training budget?

It used to be that an unhappy customer told 12 people. These days an unhappy customer writes a song and tells 5,500,000 people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

It's worth getting your customer service right.

Drop your jeans at Manchester Arndale.

Fashion gurus are saying that denim is set to be one of the hottest looks autumn and Manchester Arndale are running a Jeans Amnesty.

"From 17th to 25th September we’re encouraging you to ‘Drop Your Denims’ and take part in a major fundraising campaign to raise money for Key 103's Cash for Kids .

Visit our 'Drop your Denims' promotion in Exchange Court and donate your denims in exchange for money-off at six of our finest denim retailers: Levis , G-Star , Jack & Jones , Republic , Esprit and Baron Jon . Each pair of denims you bring us will fetch you a £5 voucher to spend on a new pair."

Visit www.manchesterarndale.com for more information.

Stop the English Defence League

You may well have seen the press coverage of the English Defence League causing trouble www.bbc.co.uk. They plan to do exactly the same in Manchester in the coming weeks and there is a movement to stop them. Hope Not Hate are asking Mancunians who don't want this to happen in their city to send an email to the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson.

Manchester City Council are saying no to the English Defence League. Councillor Jim Battle, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, said: "We are a welcoming and tolerant city. Wherever the so-called English Defence League have gone there has been violence and disruption to ordinary people who just want to go about their business.

"These people do not have a legitimate cause - they merely wish to vilify, insult, intimidate and provoke one section of our community. That isn't protest or legitimate democratic debate and it certainly is not welcome in Manchester."

If you would like to add your voice to the other Mancunians who don't want this to happen in our city, visit www.hopenothate.org.uk

Festival in Manchester this weekend

Platform 4 are making Manchester Piccadilly the place to be on September 18th, 19th and 20th with a full weekend festival of Parkour (freerunning), acrobatics, theatre and music.

For full listings visit www.xtrax.org.uk

Stockport looking for hotels

Interested to see that according to national hotel investment consultants TRI Stockport has capacity for new hotels. It will be interesting to see if anything exciting arrives at the end of city region.

Major Events in Britain 2009-2015

It's always useful to have an idea of what's coming up, particularly when planning what your business will be up to and how to make the most of opportunities. Visit Britain have compiled a list of the major events already booked to take place in Britain from September 2009 until 2015. It is now available for download from here.

Meeting Minutes now online

The presentations from the Manchester Made it Easy meeting today, 10th September 2009 are now available for download here.

Meeting. September 10th. 2pm. The Midland

It’s back to The Midland for another parish meeting of Manchester’s lifestyle community on Thursday 10th September 2009 at 2pm for 90 minutes. Again we'll provide the coffee, break the news, provoke, open the floor to discussion, and provide a forum to network to your heart's content. This is about business survival and tactics in 2009.

There is no cost to attending.

If you would like to attend, please email Louise

The Palace and Opera House are up for sale

Crain's, Manchester's business newspaper, is reporting that Live Nation have put all their theatres on the market, including Manchester's Palace Theatre and Opera House.

Rival theatre groups are understandably very interested in the portfolio of theatres with bids higher than the £75m asking price rumoured to have been received already.