York Racecourse has been confirmed as one of the top 11 racecourses to visit in England and Wales by national tourist board VisitEngland as part of the Racecourse Association’s (RCA) Quality Assured Racecourse Scheme (QARS).

Every racecourse is visited by a trained assessor from VisitEngland whose job is to objectively assess the raceday experience. This assessment includes all customer touchpoints from the raceday and also comprises pre and post event information.

VisitEngland, confirmed the top 11 racecourses for raceday experience in 2018 were (alphabetised): Aintree, Ascot, Beverley, Cheltenham, Chester, Newbury, Newmarket (July), Ripon, Uttoxeter, Wincanton and York. The benchmark score to be included in this prestigious company was 88% or higher.

RCA Excellence Accolades were presented to racecourses that achieved exemplary scores in specific areas of the assessments. The team at York collected accolades for both The Gimcrack Restaurant and the Knavesmire Food Court as a presentation at the 2018 Showcase Awards.

Paul Swain, the RCA’s Brand & Experience Manager, commented ““Congratulations to the top 11 in England and Wales; the Quality Assured Racecourse Scheme is a much-valued offering from the RCA in that it provides an expert, objective assessment of the raceday experience. More importantly, the feedback and evidence generated help racecourses to improve this year on year which I am delighted to say has been reflected in the scores.”

Andrew Stokes, VisitEngland Director, said “Our research shows that people want to visit our globally renowned racecourses with their historical pedigree and atmospheric raceday experience.  The RCA Excellence accolades reinforce what people already know, that a day at the races in England and Wales is a world-class day out.

“And with racecourses dotted around England and Wales more visitors are travelling to experience all that a race-day has to offer, boosting the local economy throughout the year.”

James Brennan, Head of Marketing at York Racecourse noted “clearly Visit England know what makes for a good day out, so the team here take a real pride in having delivered against their high standards. To pick up two Excellence Accolades is the icing on the cake.”