Three national awards for heritage sites

Three Jersey Heritage sites have won prestigious national awards that recognise excellence within the visitor attraction sector.

Jersey Museum, Art Gallery & Victorian House has won the top ‘Gold Accolade’ for overall excellence in the VisitEngland Visitor Attraction Accolades 2024-2025, alongside the likes of the Imperial War Museum and The National Gallery in London.

The Maritime Museum has won the ‘Welcome Accolade’ and La Hougue Bie Tearoom has been awarded the ‘Quality Food and Drink Accolade’.

All six Jersey Heritage visitor sites – Jersey Museum, the Maritime Museum, La Hougue Bie, Mont Orgueil, Elizabeth Castle and Hamptonne Country Life Museum – attained Visit England’s ‘Quality Rose Marque’ and received high assessment scores.

The annual VisitEngland Accolades were announced at a ceremony yesterday (12th) and cover all aspects of what makes an outstanding visitor experience. They are awarded to participants in the VisitEngland Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme (VAQAS) and follow an independent assessment carried out at each site earlier this year.

Morgan Ward, Jersey Heritage’s Head of Visitor Services, said: “These national awards are about providing an outstanding experience for visitors and mean a huge amount to our team at Jersey Heritage. Our congratulations go to all our staff for the high standard they maintain at our sites, which continues to impress the VisitEngland assessors.

“The Gold award for Jersey Museum is especially pleasing as we have made lots of changes to this site, including our new flagship permanent exhibition, ‘La Tèrr’rie d’Jèrri’, two new temporary exhibitions this year and the new on-site Visitor Information Centre run in partnership with Visit Jersey. Winning the ‘Gold Accolade’ is confirmation that these changes have benefited our visitors and enhanced their overall experience.

“The ‘Welcome’ award for the Maritime Museum is testament to the time and effort put in by our staff. They are great ambassadors for a site that remains a firm favourite with our visitors. As we are now running La Hougue Bie Tearoom, we are delighted to have won the ‘Quality Food and Drink Accolade’ for this site as well.”

VisitEngland offers expert advice, support and quality assessments for tourism and hospitality businesses in England. However, Jersey Heritage has been signed up to the quality assessment scheme for a number of years and is held up to the same standards.