A New Forest hotel has claimed gold in the ‘Resilience & Innovation’ category at this year’s Beautiful South Tourism Awards – marking a quartet of accumulated accolades in 2022.
Balmer Lawn Hotel & Spa, nestled in the heart of the New Forest (recently voted the best National Park in Europe by Tripadvisor), took home the coveted prize last night (Monday 25th) to claim their fourth award win of 2022, following earlier success at the Southampton Hospitality Awards, Guide for Brides Customer Service Awards, and the recent Springboard Awards for Excellence 2022.
The 4-star hotel received the award for its positive influence within the tourism industry throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to demonstrating innovation, resilience and adaptation, along with support for its local New Forest community.
Judges were impressed with Balmer Lawn’s strategic implementation of its outside concept, The Lodge, which was built specifically to be a COVID-compliant environment to welcome guests safely back during the pandemic. The ambitious project successfully served 3,500 covers in the first three weeks of opening, and served 7,812 covers after five weeks of outside dining in April 2021.
Further innovation included the development of an in-house, geo-located food ordering app that delivered sales of over £10,000 in its first quarter – with no staff overheads. This completely transformed the food and drink offering at Balmer Lawn to cover previously unserviceable areas of the gardens and grounds.
Commenting on the hotel’s latest accolades, Michael Clitheroe, General Manager at Balmer Lawn Hotel & Spa, said: “The Beautiful South Tourism Awards celebrate the best of the best and we are incredibly proud to take home the gold and be recognised as a leading innovator in tourism following the pandemic.
“With tourism in the UK being hit hard over the past two years, we knew we had to come up with new and innovative ways for the business to survive and further offer support to our local New Forest community. The development and construction of The Lodge showcased our team’s unique ability to adapt to the fluctuating restrictions throughout the national lockdowns and demonstrated our speed to deliver major benefits to the business while demonstrating resilience. It really has been an incredible start to the year for everyone connected with Balmer Lawn!”
The Beautiful South Tourism Awards recognises excellence in the tourism industry and are organised by Tourism South East, the regional umbrella organisation for tourism.
For more information on Balmer Lawn, please: visit https://www.balmerlawnhotel.com/.