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| Posted by: Cecilia |
Thursday, June 24, 2010 12:48 PM |
Yesterday (June 23) Rheged opened the doors to two of its new Tourist Information Stations, Food & Drink and Outdoor Adventure. What they, with Head of Marketing Claire Logan-Stephens at the helm, have done, is to create a completely new concept for Tourist Information Centres. It's brilliant, instead of huge walls of leaflets about anything and everything, you decide what topic you're interested in – Food & Drink in my case – and the information station is appropriately located in the Taste shop/café. The information on display, and the websites which can be accessed through a touch screen, have been selected to reflect the best food experiences on offer in Cumbria, rather than all food experiences. Oh, and we at Artisan-food supply the monthly updated food news pages displayed on screens – so there's always something current.
Julia Bradbury was on hand yesterday to do the honours, here with Alex Evans, Westmorland's farm shops manager and buyer.
Julia also had a chance to sample some of the local goodies, including gorgeous goats cheese from Wardhall Dairy, run by Lynn Ballantine-Dykes:
And Anne Gallagher from Hawkshead Brewery talked her through good combinations of ales, chocolate and cheese!
Nick Jones from the Watermill was there to provide the bread and Slow Food angle.
The event coincided with Cumbria Tourism's AGM, and I think Westmorland/Rheged – with their new take on Tourist Information Centres – are really showing the way forward: It's about quality, not quantity and about using the visitors' interests as a starting point.
Of course Westmorland's CEO Sarah Dunning was there, here having a chat with Joanne Wilson from Grasmere Ginger Bread (left).
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