PressClub United Kingdom · Article.
MINI Plant Oxford tours bag top accolade from England’s official tourism agency
Tue Mar 06 13:14:00 CET 2018 Press Kit
MINI Plant Oxford has received a top visitor attraction award from the official national tourism agency for England.
Press Contact.
Steve Wrelton
BMW Group
Tel: +44-1865-8-26270
Fax: +44-1865-826750
send an e-mail
- MINI Plant Oxford tour receives ‘Best Told Story’ accolade from
VisitEngland.
- Award recognises attractions that ‘go the extra
mile to provide a high quality day out’
- Record 21,000 visitors
came to see how MINIs are made in 2017
MINI Plant Oxford has received a top visitor attraction award
from the official national tourism agency for England.
The plant, which builds more than 1,000 MINIs each day, has been
recognised by VisitEngland with a ‘Best Told Story Accolade’ for its
factory tour, which gives visitors a behind the scenes look at how
this iconic British car is made.
Introduced by VisitEngland in 2014, the accolades are available
to attractions that are part of the Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme
and are allocated through a scoring system based on an annual
unannounced assessment. They recognise attractions that ‘go the extra
mile to provide a high quality day out.’
With a dedicated team of tour guides, MINI Plant Oxford welcomed
well over 21,000 visitors from all over the world last year to see how
a new car is built here every 67 seconds. The VisitEngland accolade
builds on the TripAdvisor ‘Certificate of Excellence’ awarded to the
team in September.
Frank Bachmann, Managing Director of MINI Plant Oxford, said:
“We’re privileged to welcome so many people to get a closer look at
how MINIs are made and our tour guides and staff pride themselves on
making those experiences special. Huge congratulations to everyone on
the plant tours team - this award is testament to all of their hard
work and dedication.”
Andra Pirvu, Project Manager for MINI Plant Oxford tours, said:
“Achieving a Visit England accolade is something that everyone on the
team is extremely proud of. Telling the story of the plant is central
to what we do and so to be recognised in the ‘Best Told Story’
category is fantastic news.”
MINI Plant tour guide and former plant worker, Terry Stringer,
said: “As someone who worked here for so long it’s been fascinating to
see how the plant has changed and developed to become such a global
success story. We now have many thousands of people from all around
the world coming to see us and we try to give them the best experience
we possibly can. I guess this award is a recognition of everyone’s
work over the past year.”
MINI Plant Oxford is a member of VisitEngland’s Visitor
Attraction Quality Scheme, which represents a wide range of tourism
experiences across England, from museums and galleries, farm
attractions, historic houses and gardens to churches, cathedrals and
country parks.
In November the plant’s tour was recognised with a VisitEngland
‘Quality Rose Marque’ - a sign that the MINI Plant Oxford tour has
been independently assessed and meets the high standards that visitors
expect.
VisitEngland Director Andrew Stokes said of the accolades:
“These attractions offer a warm welcome, unique storytelling, high
quality food and drink and unparalleled customer service and rightly
deserve these accolades. They provide visitors with amazing
experiences and create reasons to travel the length and breadth of the
country, increasing the economic benefits of tourism.”
Tours of MINI Plant Oxford run Monday to Friday and last just
over two hours. There is a maximum of 15 people per group and the
minimum age is 10 years old.
For full details and booking information please go to www.visit-mini.com