This weeks green blog reports on Jon Presslings recent trip to the Green Awareness Training that he attended earlier this week. 

Two years ago, Blue Chip Vacations was rewarded for its work towards sustainable tourism by being awarded the Silver Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) award. This involved our business being assessed against a rigorous set of criteria covering a range of areas including energy and water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and more.

Not wanting to be a business that lets the grass grow beneath us we are now striving towards achieving a Gold Award. As part of this I recently attended a course on "Green Awareness Training", organised by the Devon Tourism Skills Network.

 The Sunday Times has once again ranked Blue Chip Vacations' cottages in its top 100 cool cottages. This year the stunning Bryher Cottage in St. Mawgan, Cornwall came in the top twenty at number 13. And it's not difficult to see why. This beautiful barn conversion boasts a roaring Charnwood Stove, comfy mattresses and blackout curtains making Bryher Cottage a cosy home from home. Ideal for families, with a cot, high chair and stair gate all provided, it makes for a special family break. The walled garden is a real sun trap and a great place for family barbeques in the warm summer months. Sat in a characterful corner of the region, close to a quaint village shop, a cosy welcoming pub and a fascinating monastery, there is certainly plenty to see and do. In addition to this, the great family beaches of Mawgan Porth and Watergate Bay area mere five minute drive away, ideal for a lazy day on the sun kissed sand.

Congratulations go to Mill Meadow, which has racked up no less than three Green accolades for their fabulous luxury, five-star self-catering lodges in Kingston St Mary, Somerset. Their outstanding gold in the Green Tourism Business Awards (GTBS) follows on from their highly commended runner-up positions at both the Somerset Business Awards 2009 and Regen SW green awards.

This achievement is especially significant as Mill Meadow is currently the only self-catering gold GTBS award winner in the whole of Somerset and one of just 414 nationally.

Web User - the largest circulation print magazine in the UK of its type has reviewed the new Blue Chip Vacations web site, launched 2 months ago.

We did pretty well - scoring 4 out of 5 stars - and the review praised our "high-quality photos" and "a clear, easy-to-navigate layout".

You can read the review on the Web User site by clicking here.

Blue Chip Vacations were represented at last night's Tourism Excellence Awards as one of the winners in the Best Website category.  The prestigious annual event was held at the impressive Cadbury House Hotel in North Somerset, to mark the achievements of South West companies in a range of categories including Best Visitor Attraction and Best Customer Service.

Blue Chip Vacations were announced as a silver winner in the website category and were delighted to receive our award from Dr. Phil Hammond and Sam Gilson from E-Strategy.

Robin Barker of Services for Tourism, organiser of the award programme awards, said: "Businesses are recognising the benefit of awards, whether through increased public profile, staff motivation, the winners’ logo on their website or having something to help win over the bank manager. This year’s winners are absolutely outstanding and I congratulate them, whilst thanking the many sponsors who literally make the awards happen, and the panel of independent judges who gave freely of their time to select the very best".

Blue Chip Vacations has been named as one of the winners in South West Tourism's prestigious South West Tourism Excellence Awards.  Designed to celebrate ‘the best in the South West' the Awards aim to promote and reward the very best in the tourism industry.

Nominated in the category of "Tourism Website of the Year", Blue Chip Vacations will have to wait until the actual awards night on the 24 November to discover whether it has been awarded a Gold or Silver award.

The winners have been through an exhaustive selection and judging process, which has whittled over 200 entries down to 73 finalists and now 40 winners.  Awards night will see 15 of these selected as Gold winners and 25 as Silvers.