Red Funnel celebrates best of Island businesses with the ‘Red Funnel Isle of Wight Awards’ 2020

Red Funnel is shining a spotlight on Isle of Wight businesses with the announcement of its much-anticipated Red Funnel Isle of Wight Awards winners. Celebrating all that is special and unique about the Isle of Wight, the awards recognise the many diverse and wonderful places to go, stay and eat across the Island. The awards highlight shining stars within the community via 20 categories, each recognising the top three nominees with Gold, Silver or Bronze awards.orrie

New wins this year included Django’s which scooped Best Newcomer, while repeat wins were picked up by The Cow for Best Burger and The IOW Festival for Best Island Event. The Garlic Farm earned the most awards for the second year in a row, picking up gold for Best Self-Catering Stay, Best Restaurant and Best Shop/Retail Experience.

Commenting on the awards, CEO, Fran Collins said: “Island businesses are the heart and soul of our beautiful Island. They play a critical role in attracting visitors, and make up many of the lasting memories they take home. It is our great honour and privilege to celebrate and showcase the many shining stars on the Isle of Wight whose exceptional standards and customer service deserve to be recognised. On behalf of all of us at Red Funnel, I applaud and congratulate this year’s incredible nominees and winners alike. We wish them every success as we prepare for the 2021 season.”

For the last seven years, Red Funnel has celebrated the very best of the Island with the ‘myIsleofWight Awards’ – a visitor-voted tourism awards program that saw over 20 winners recognised each year in a variety of unique categories. This year, Red Funnel ‘revamped’ the awards, not only with a new name, but also with a new set of categories and a modified voting format, which including opening the voting to Isle of Wight residents. The public vote closed earlier this year with the top three nominees in each category being selected by the public vote. The shortlist was then reviewed by a panel of expert judges to decide the Gold, Silver and Bronze rankings.

The judging panel was made up of four Island champions: Sarah Dawson, Sales Development Manager at Red Funnel, Robbie Lane, Founder and Blogger of the Isle of Wight Guru, Alix Robinson, PR & Communications Expert at MyIsleofWight, Alixity, and Will Myles, Managing Director of Visit Isle of Wight. The panel was selected due to their vast experience within the Isle of Wight community and their dedication to promoting it through their work.

The Red Funnel Isle of Wight Awards 2020 GOLD winners for each category are:

Accommodation

• Best Place to go Glamping – Tom’s Eco Lodge
• Best B&B or Guest House – Victoria Lodge
• Best Hotel Experience – The Royal Hotel
• Best Self-Catering Stay – Garlic Farm Cottages
• Best Campsite – Grange Farm
• Best Holiday Park – Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park

Food & Drink

• Best Restaurant – The Garlic Farm Restaurant
• Best Café or Tearoom – Comicoffee UK
• Best Burger – The Cow
• Best Fish & Chips – Stotesburys Fish & Chips
• Best Pub – The Spyglass Inn
• Best Local Produce – Isle of Wight Distillery
   

Things to Do

• Best Large Attraction – Tapnell Farm Park
• Best Small Attraction – Monkey Haven
• Best Activity Provider – John Cattle’s Skate Club
• Best Island Event – Isle of Wight Festival
• Best Shop/Retail Experience – The Garlic Farm Shop
   

Other

• Best Place for Dogs – Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary
• Best Green Business – Tapnell Farm Park
• Best Newcomer - Django’s
   
• For more information and the complete list of award winners, including Silver and Bronze recipients, please visit www.redfunnel.co.uk/awards

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For further information regarding Red Funnel, please contact:

Enya Lumley or Mel Piercy at McKenna Townsend

T: 01425 472330
E: [email protected]

Editor’s note

About Red Funnel

Red Funnel is the original Isle of Wight ferry company with roots tracing back to 1820. Based in the UK port of Southampton, Red Funnel carries 2.3m passengers and over 800,000 vehicles on its ferry route between the UK port of Southampton and East Cowes and 1.1m passengers between Southampton and West Cowes on its Red Jet Hi-Speed service.  In addition to ferry travel, Red Funnel is the only cross-Solent operator to offer ferry inclusive bonded holiday accommodation, attraction tickets, festival and event tickets and activity packages. Sub-brands include ‘Red Jet’ (the Hi-Speed passenger only ferry service serving West Cowes) and two food & beverage brands, ‘Steam Coffee Company’ and ‘ReFuel’.  The Company is a founder member of Visit Isle of Wight Ltd, the Island’s not for profit destination management organisation and Red Funnel sponsors or supports most of the Island’s premier events including the IW Festival, Cowes Week, Rhythm Tree, The Great Wonderfest, Wight Proms, Cowes Classics, and Walk the Wight as well as a range of community and niche interest events. Red Funnel’s Charities of the Year, 2020 are The Leaf Foundation (Monkey Haven) and Daisy Chains IW.

For more information visit: www.redfunnel.co.uk