A NUMBER of north Essex businesses have been crowned winners at an annual awards ceremony.
The East of England Tourism Awards celebrate the best tourism and hospitality businesses, quality, innovation and best practice from across Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Norfolk.
Four businesses in north Essex have been crowned winners at this year’s awards, following a sparkling ceremony at Snape Maltings last night.
Colchester Zoo won the Accessible and Inclusive Tourism Award.
The Maldon Road attraction celebrated its 60th anniversary last year.
As part of the celebrations, the venue confirmed it will be changing its name to the Colchester Zoological Society, which has since been revealed to be from January 1, 2025.
Colchester Castle was one of the finalists for the same award.
Wivenhoe House was crowned the Large Hotel of the Year.
Heavily led by students from the Edge Hotel School at Essex University, Wivenhoe House Hotel is a wedding and events venue as well as a hotel.
It is not the first time it has seen success at the awards.
The Three Horseshoes, in Fordham, won Pub of the Year at the awards.
The pub, which is run by Moira Edwards, her son Sam, and his girlfriend Abbie, was bought a week before Christmas in 2020 and started selling food to go on New Year’s Day 2021.
It has previously been recognised as one of the best in the UK.
The final north Essex business which saw success was Hasty’s Adventure Farm in Clacton, named Small Visitor Attraction of the Year.
The farm, which opened in 2016, has been dubbed a “true gem on the Essex sunshine coast”.
The park has space to play and an innovative undercover wooden adventure zone, as well as an animal barn and contact zone for families and children to meet and feed animals.
Elsewhere in Essex, another winner was Potters Resort Five Lakes in Tolleshunt Knights.
It won the New Tourism Business of the Year Award.
Other finalists named at the awards from Essex were Markshall Estate in Coggeshall, in the Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Award and LandyCampers, for Self Catering Accommodation of the Year.
For the full list of winners, visit tourismawards.co.uk/winners-2023/24.
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