Southwold: Pier battles for tourism awards votes

SOUTHWOLD Pier is going head to head with some of the country’s best tourist attractions as it battles to win voters for two national awards.

The pier has been nominated in the Coast Magazine 2012 awards for Best British Seaside Resort and the Best Seaside Attraction awards.

The closing date for votes is next Monday and Southwold Pier owner, Stephen Bournes, said: “We will have a big chance the more people want to vote for us.

“It has been great for our staff to just be nominated.”

For best seaside attraction, Southwold Pier is up against some of the country’s biggest names in tourism including Brighton Pier, Blackpool Tower, The Minack Theatre, Porthcurno, Cornwall and the Turner Contemporary, Margate, Kent.

The resort itself is competing against St David’s, Pembroke-shire, St Ives, Cornwall, Whitby, North Yorkshire and Whitstable, Kent, for Best British Seaside Resort. The result of the votes will be published in this summer’s edition of Coast Magazine.

Mr Bournes revealed that plans to build a hotel on the pier are under way and that the first building work will be complete by the middle of February, with the hotel being finished in a couple of years.

Only last year Southwold Pier won two Tourism in Suffolk Awards.

It was named as Best Large Suffolk Attraction 2011 and Outstanding Customer Service 2011.

To vote for Southwold in the Coast Awards, visit www.allaboutyou.com/coast/coast-events/vote-in-the-coast-awards-2012 and cast your vote.