Bradford Theatres shortlisted for a prestigious regional award

Bradford Theatres have been shortlisted for a prestigious regional Tourism Award for the second year running.  Following a record breaking number of entries to the White Rose Awards, Welcome to Yorkshire revealed earlier this week which tourism businesses will battle it out for the most prestigious tourism awards in the UK.

The Awards, a celebration of excellence in the tourism industry, has a shortlist boasting 90 of Yorkshire’s best attractions, hotels, venues and individuals from the tourism industry.  The list covers 16 categories ranging from Best Visitor Experience of the Year and the Access for All Tourism Award to the Sustainable Tourism Award and Business Tourism Award. There is also a new category, Visitor Information Award, announced for 2010.

Bradford Theatres’ city centre venue, the Alhambra Theatre, was shortlisted for the Access For All category along with three other visitor attractions: The Royal York Hotel & Events Centre, The Deep in Hull and last year’s winner for this category, Yorkshire Waterways Museum in Goole.

Adam Renton, General Manager Bradford Theatres, says:

“Being shortlisted for the Access For All award reflects Bradford Theatres’ achievements in customer care and the fact that access is at the heart of this organisation.  I’m especially proud of the fact that despite having no specific budget for access and no designated access staff, access is core to the central ethos of the theatre and everybody from the top management to the casual staff takes responsibility.

We pride ourselves on our commitment to excellent levels of customer service and have increased our offerings over the last 12 months to include a recently re-developed website which meets new Accessibility Guidelines. Visitors can view things like an online video tour of the venue, with both subtitles and BSL interpretation to help them in advance of their visit.

It can be difficult for Deaf people to follow the captioning or signer at the same time as the action on stage.  We now also produce pre-show notes introducing each character in order of appearance with a brief description, which makes it much easier to follow on the day.  We believe we are the only theatre in the country to provide this service.

We focus heavily on the training of our staff and last summer, the Theatre developed specific disability awareness training with our disabled users group, Bradford Theatres Access Group (BTAG). This was delivered by members of the group with various disabilities. With the use of sensory deprivation aids, staff experienced for a short time what it is like to be blind, deaf or be a wheelchair user, which greatly helped them understand the issues faced in accessing our Theatre.

Our aim is always to exceed expectations in providing a high-quality service to the public, visiting production companies and our partners.  It’s very rewarding to learn that our efforts in doing this have been recognised at a regional level.”

Councillor The Reverend Paul Flowers comments:

“I’m delighted that the Alhambra Theatre has been shortlisted for this award and that Bradford Theatres have been recognised on a regional level.  It shows that efforts to move forward and continuously improve services are being recognised throughout the district and beyond.  I am very proud of the hard work that has been put in by all the staff working for the Alhambra Theatre.”

The winners will be announced at a glittering gala awards ceremony on the evening of Monday 4 October at the Yorkshire Event Centre based at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate, when Bradford Theatres and all the other finalists will find out if they’ve been successful. 
For more information go to www.whiteroseawards.com

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