Sid Fisher of the Great Ouse Boating Association was presented with the Huntingdonshire Association for Tourism (HAT) award at their annual general meeting last month.

HAT encourages tourist and business visitors to the area, and once here, encourage them to stay and spend money with both our accommodation and attraction members.

The association wanted to formally commend Sid’s achievement of bringing The Inland Waterways Festival to St Ives, which took place over the August bank holiday in 2007 and was a huge success, despite the inclement weather in the week before the festival.  Sid told the AGM that he hoped he would be able to persuade the Inland Waterways Association to bring the festival back to St Ives in the future.  The event attracted 25,000 people to the district, including 350 boats and 300 exhibitors. The entertainment was second to none, with wild west shows, classic car rallies, theatre programmes and local bands, to name but a few of the highlights.  

Helen Donnellan, Senior Economic Development Officer at Huntingdonshire District Council was presented with the Wyvern Stayley-Grace award for excellence in tourism by the Huntingdonshire Association for Tourism. The award was in recognition for the work Helen has achieved in the district on behalf of tourism businesses over the last 12 months which includes helping to organise the Inland Waterways Association festival and supporting those businesses through a period of change in the tourism Industry. 

HAT is a non-profit making association, purely funded by its members and run by volunteers. The groups members include hotels, guest houses, self-catering outlets, local attractions, restaurants and teashops.

HAT offers a support network vital to tourism businesses in the area trying to become established, or simply trying to stay in business.