OPINION: Harrogate’s hospitality sector is stirring from its January hibernation period - Simon Cotton

So, Valentines?... to go out and do something romantic, or not get caught up in a commercialised hype that, lets face it, tends to be aimed the younger market these days?

Well I’m not a soppy old romantic type and I’m certainly not into having a slightly dodgy violinist coming and standing over me whilst trying to have a nice meal playing badly and winking and smiling lots, you get the type; but I do think doing nothing isn’t really an option either, so a small gift or a quiet meal out in a good local restaurant is always a winner and will no doubt keep you in the good books with your better half. Whatever you decide to do, my only tip if it is the latter, is to get on and book somewhere this very minute as odds are the best restaurants and eateries in town will be extremely busy already this weekend.

In preparation for a busy season ahead, I took a week off last week to re-charge the batteries. We decided on a bit of a road trip that took us from Durham to Switzerland, to the forests of the North Yorkshire Moors, via the Lincolnshire coast.

A thoroughly enjoyable week but we covered enough miles that it does feel like I now need a holiday to get over it. Don’t worry, I’m not mentioning holidays at risk of getting out the holiday snaps, no, but when I travel, which is a great passion of mine, I’m always on the look out for what makes places stand out as being different.

On this particular trip, I have to say that the Swiss, particularly in Geneva appear to have got something that I’ve rarely seen in other tourist destinations. It was like the whole city had gone through a training program of how to be hospitable.

From the moment we stepped off the plane, to going to the train station, to shops, restaurants, bars and the hotel where we stayed, the welcome could not have been more impressive. Literally everyone we came into contact with seemed to be on some kind of mission to win an award for outstanding customer service.

From the policemen who approached us at the train station asking us with a friendly smile if he could help as we looked lost, to the lovely chap who then helped sort out tickets; and when we arrived at the hotel, check in wasn’t a ‘process’ which it can be in so many places, it was a genuine happy welcome by someone who seemed really pleased to see us.

This continued in all the places we chose to eat out - from warm friendly welcomes and regular checks of satisfaction to good, well balanced humour by some who clearly wanted to make our visit as enjoyable as it could be.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, it did make me think back to Harrogate BID’s idea last year about wanting to create a fantastic welcome for visitors to Harrogate. I think we do well most times, really well in fact, in our hospitality offering, but is it the best, or can we do better?

Personally, I think we can step up a level across our town and district and having just been reminded on this recent trip what a difference a place feels like, when everyone works together for the good of the destination, it’d be great to see 2022 as a platform for Harrogate taking on that challenge.

If you work in or go out and enjoy the best hospitality offering in Harrogate, make sure you shout about that and an easy way to do that is by getting involved in this years Hospitality & Tourism Awards.

More details can be found at www.harrogatehospitality.co.uk or look out for the posters and voting forms in town.