This category opens Monday 17th March at 10:00am and closes Monday 28th April at 23:59pm

This award celebrates a business or event who sets the standards for inclusion and demonstrates a strong commitment to serving the market and providing excellent customer service.

Some examples of inclusive practices would include:

An ongoing commitment to training frontline staff or event volunteers in equality, diversity and inclusion awareness
Providing facilities and services designed for different customer groups or a specific customer group e.g., autism or dementia friendly tours or accommodation which is accessible to wheelchair users, services for deaf or for the hard of hearing, braille signage etc.
Social activity which offers opportunities for low-income families or young disadvantaged adults to participate in Scottish tourism and events.

Who Should Enter:
This award is for any tourism or event business that can serve as an example to industry, by emphasising their inclusion ethos, who demonstrates a commitment to serving the market and providing excellent customer service.

Entry Questions

Executive Summary
The purpose of the Executive Summary is to give judges a general overview and better understanding of your business. Although not an exhaustive list, some examples of the type of information judges will be looking for are listed below. This question is not scored and is for background information only.

Types of services on offer
Size and purpose of your business
How long you have been operating
Any other information you feel is relevant

1. Please provide details of your inclusive business practice or programme.

You should provide evidence of activity within the time period 1^st May 2024 – 31^st March 2025. Please cover any areas you think are relevant, for example you may wish to include aspects such as:

What you’ve done to make your product or service accessible, available to everyone
What is the visitor experience and enhancement?
How you have created and developed your product or service
Creative partnership working or innovative ways of working with your local community
How you ensure inclusive recruitment practices
Any unique aspect of your inclusive product or service
Of the product or service
Ways in which you have expanded your activity to increase and enable wider visitor engagement
What steps do you take to promote your accessibility facilities and services e.g. do you provide appropriate accessibility information online, how are these facilities being marketed, are you using social media/ or influencers?

2. What have been the outcomes/results of your inclusive activity on your visitor experience, as well as any learnings you’ve gained so far?

You should provide evidence of the impact of your activity on your business and visitor experience, within the time period 1^st May 2024 – 31^st March 2025. Cover any areas you think are relevant, for example you may wish to include aspects such as:

Training/development of team to enhance customer experience
How you have Improved the customer experience/journey
Have you achieved what you set out to do?
Increased turnover and/or increased repeat business
Are you using any specific technologies or apps to support disabled people to engage with your business
Audience/Visitor growth
Other awards / external verification
Evidence from review sites e.g. TripAdvisor or Euans Guide
Are you having conversations with the target audience to encourage feedback and continual improvement?

3. What steps are you currently taking to develop your business? What do you hope to achieve and how are you measuring success?

You should provide clear evidence of current developments and how benefits will be monitored / measured, eg. through visitor feedback, increased revenue, target market statistics. Please cover any areas you think are relevant although you may wish to include aspects such as:

Plans for new and innovative products/services
New collaboration and/or partnership working
Intentionally targeting new markets or increasing occupancy/attendance rates
Obtaining an external assessment of quality and experience (eg. awards schemes, customer ratings)

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INCLUSION AWARD

Entry Questions