Hat-trick for Alnwick Castle

The company gives special recognition to the best performing tourism provider in 11 categories and Alnwick Castle scooped the award for Best Overall Castle Experience, meaning that it was judged best in the UK by more than 15,000 visitors who CIE brought to the UK in 2018.

CIE Tours International recognises the quality of the UK’s hotels and visitor attractions by giving an Award of Excellence to those who have received a greater than 90% customer satisfaction rating.

Alnwick Garden and Bamburgh Castle received awards of excellence.

CIE Tours International is Ireland’s leading inbound tour operator, having taken more than four million visitors from North America to tour Ireland over the course of its 87-year history.

Chief executive Elizabeth Crabill said: “The level of customer satisfaction achieved by our suppliers plays a vital role in our success and the aim of our awards is to encourage them to focus on the clients’ experience and improving standards of service, so it is gratifying to see the increase in suppliers being given 90% plus ratings.

“All of the recipients play a role in our success by welcoming our visitors and ensuring that they have a memorable experience.

“Our awards are well recognised and hugely respected in Ireland and it is great to see that the awards have been embraced so quickly in the UK.

“Travellers from North America are accustomed to very high levels of service, so we run the awards to encourage our partners to focus on continuously increasing the quality of our visitors’ experience. To achieve a rating above 90% from these travellers is very meaningful and the fact that the number of our suppliers in the UK achieving this is rapidly increasing year on year, is a great sign for UK tourism.”