It’s a Group Effort”: Carnforth’s Leighton Hall Celebrates Top Nomination
As they celebrate their 60th year of opening to group visitors, Leighton Hall are delighted to have been nominated as finalists in the prestigious 2019 Group Travel Awards.
Readers of GTO magazine (Group Travel Organiser) and sister e-newsletter Group Travel Grapevine voted in their droves, nominating the North Lancashire attraction category finalists for ‘Best Attraction for Group Visits outside London’. This rates the historic hall, near Carnforth, alongside high profile competition including Bletchley Park, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and the National Trust’s Waddesdon Manor.
Leighton Hall, seat of the Gillow furniture making dynasty, is still very much the family home it has been for centuries. A huge part of its charm is that nothing is ‘roped off’. On the entertaining house tours, visitors are invited to take their place at the priceless Gillow dining table, climb the elegant ‘flying staircase’, and even play the Steinway, before enjoying ‘proper’ tea in real china cups!
Group organisers enjoy extra access, as whilst the hall is open to family visitors from May to September, six specially themed tours run throughout the whole year for groups.
This range of offerings is clearly valued by the GTO voters, as Manager Lucy Arthurs, appreciates; “These awards mean the most to us as they are voted for directly by the group organisers that come to visit us. It’s not a submission process (so the news came as a complete surprise to us!), and it’s wonderful recognition of what we achieve in partnership with our fantastic group travel visitors.”
The Group Travel Awards have earned an enviable reputation as the most distinguished and respected event serving the group travel market. A nomination signifies a highly valued endorsement from customers in this most important market sector.
Now the Leighton Hall team can look forward to the glamour of the gala awards evening on Friday 7th June at the Park Plaza Riverbank in central London where the ‘golden envelope’ will reveal the winners! Until then, it is ‘business as usual’, with the team busy planning and hosting tours and events at the hall.
Lucy adds; “It would be incredible to win, but just to get a nomination at such a prestigious event is wonderful recognition of the hard work of the whole Leighton team. It’s especially poignant to have our service to the group market appreciated in this way as we celebrate our 60th anniversary since my grandfather opened the hall to the public. We never stop striving to provide the best experience for groups of all interests, and I like to think we are doing him proud, too!”