Family Friendly Award
About this good practice
Family Friendly award was designed and implemented during the Covid pandemic. The goal of the award is to attract visitors who want to spend quality time with their family, in a child-friendly environment - accommodation, restaurant, service or attraction - or are looking for meaningful recreational opportunities that offer an interesting and safe ways to spend time for all members of the family (tourist activities).
The award is granted annually by Harghita Community Development Association for those operators who comply with the Family Friendly requirements such as:
- safety (the elements of playground play are required to be certified for quality and safety, anti-slip surfaces and stairs, the rooms should not contain sharp items etc.);
- hygiene (a dedicated place in restaurant toilets for changing nappies, frequent cleaning and disinfection);
- child friendliness (children’s dining chair, playground for children, children’s menu etc.);
The award is heavily promoted together with the Visit Harghita brand, through the platform, the app and various social media platforms and with the involvement of journalists, bloggers and influencers.
Resources needed
The implementation of the Family friendly initiative and all the promotion activity is financed by Harghita County Council and the contribution of the members to the associations budget.
Evidence of success
The measurement of success are the awards granted.
Awards granted in 2020: 52 awards – 33 accommodations and 19 restaurants
Awards granted in 2021: 35 awards – 2 new categories: 11 accommodations, 3 restaurants, 15 service providers with 36 programs and 6 attractions
The 2 info-trips/year have generated quite a large visibility.
Reach of 2020: 8,5 million people
Reach of 2021: 4,7 million people
Potential for learning or transfer
The main reason we consider Family Friendly Award as a good example is that the initiative engages both public and private sector and creates communication among local administration, tourism companies and tourists as well.
The Family Friendly Award shows that cooperation between local administration, tourism companies and other tourism actors and innovative promotion aimed to tourists produces positive effects. And shows that effective promotion can be done while in the same time support is offered by giving direction on how to better thrive.
Involving influencers in promotion and organizing info-trips are a less usual promotion practice but one which proved to be successful.
Thanks to the extensive promotion and also the continuous communication after the first year’s success several more businesses got interested in receiving the award and applied for it.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Harghita Community Development Association (ADI Harghita)