Watch: Shropshire museum in running for top tourism title
One of Shropshire's top attractions has been shortlisted for a prestigious award, due to its friendly and welcoming atmosphere.
The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust has been named as a finalist in the large visitor attraction of the year category in the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence 2015.
As a finalist the museum will now be preparing for the glittering awards ceremony, which is being held on May 11 at the Sage Centre in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
The VisitEngland Awards for Excellence celebrate the best of English tourism. They promote healthy industry competition and high standards, helping to ensure England's place as a world-class destination.
And this year they have attracted a total of 345 applications and the museum is guaranteed to take home a gold, silver, bronze or highly commended award, which bosses say is a great achievement in itself.
Paul Gossage, of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, said: "It is wonderful that the hard work of the trustees, staff and volunteers has been recognised by Visit England and that the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is seen as one of the best attractions in the country.
"We are honoured to be nominated and the thought that we will be coming home with an award, whether that's gold, silver, bronze or the highly commended award, we are just very happy to be shortlisted.
"They looked at everything we do from the attractions themselves right down to the customer service when they carried out an inspection.
"Then we were told last week that we had been shortlisted out of thousands of other attractions across the UK. This just adds to a great year, as we have been shortlisted for many other awards."
The Ironbridge Gorge Museum was named best family day out at the 2015 Hudson's Heritage Awards last month. The 10 Ironbridge Gorge Museums are spread across six square miles of the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, together attracting around half a million visitors per year.
Intended for venues that welcome more than 50,000 visitors per annum, the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year Category will be judged on the overall quality of the experience they provide. James Berresford, chief executive of VisitEngland, said: "It's been another successful year for our Excellence Awards as we've received hundreds of applications of an extremely high standard.
"All the finalists should be incredibly proud that they've been short-listed against such tough competition."
Further details about the attraction can be found on www.ironbridge.org.uk
