We’re excited to announce we have been awarded Runner-Up in the Best Rural Start-up Business category at the South West Region Rural Business Awards. Run in partnership with Amazon it is the only UK-wide programme dedicated to showcasing the success of rural businesses. The winners in the 12 categories are decided by an independent panel of judges drawn from the rural business sector, rural public sector agencies, and rural charitable organisations.

 

We are really over the moon to receive this award within our first year of launching. We worked incredibly hard, along with a local team, to create a luxury and fun glamping experience. Huge thanks go to our family and the local companies who were part of our extended team who helped us to achieve this.

Awards co-founder Jemma Clifford said: “Anna and I are so proud to be hosting the fourth annual Rural Business Awards together with Amazon. When we started the Awards we wanted to shine a much-needed light on successful rural firms but the success of the RBAs is beyond what we ever imagined. We were blown away with the diversity of our entries this year so being recognised in any of the categories is an extraordinary achievement – hearty congratulations to Valleyside Escapes and all the other finalists.”

We’re also thrilled to have been short-listed in two other tourism awards – Best Camping site in the national i-news Staycation Awards, of which there were over 1000 nominations across 17 categories, and an esteemed panel of nine judges selected the finalists. In the Visit Devon Awards there were 240 entrants with 88 finalists across 30 categories and we’re finalists in the Best New Tourism business category. Both ceremonies take place in November, with the Staycation Awards being presented by the BBC One Show and Countryfile presenter, Matt Baker.

Watch this space to find out how we get on!