Competing in the Tourism Pub of the Year category are the Exchange, Leicester, the Freemasons at Wiswell, Clitheroe, Lancashire, St Austell Brewery site the Pandora Inn, Falmouth, Cornwall, the Wild Boar Inn Grill & Smokehouse, near Windermere, Cumbria and the Wro Bar, West Kirby, Yorkshire.
Enterprise lease the Parkers Arms, which ranked in this year’s Budweiser Budvar Top 50 Gastropubs, is up for the Taste of England award thanks to chef and owner Stosie Madie’s acclaimed food offer.
James Berresford, chief executive of VisitEngland, said: “We receive hundreds of applications each year of an extremely high standard, so it is a fantastic achievement for any tourism business to become a finalist.”
The awards are aimed at celebrating the best of the English tourism business, with winners of each of the 17 categories to be announced at a ceremony at the Sage Gateshead conference centre, in Tyne and Wear, on Monday 11 May.
Each finalist is guaranteed a gold, silver, bronze or highly commended rating in their category.
Past achievements
Chef patron Steven Smith’s pub Freemasons at Wiswell won first place in the Good Food Guide’s 2014 Top 50 Pubs list, holds three AA rosettes and came sixth in this year’s Budweiser Budvar Top 50 Gastropubs awards.
St Austell Brewery, which owns the Pandora Inn, was named Best Tenanted & Leased Pub Company (up to 200 sites) in the Publican Awards 2015.
The Parkers Arms was the regional Best Food Pub winner in 2014’s Great British Pub Awards.
The Wro Bar was awarded the title Diner’s Choice 2015 by OpenTable earlier this year.
The Wild Boar Inn was given a Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence in 2014.