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September 2006: As one of the UK's most popular visitor destinations, Oxford City is acknowledged yet again as the place to be with two recent awards. At the recent, prestigious Conde Naste Traveller Awards, Oxford was ranked the 3rd favourite city in England outside of London, having gradually risen up in the annual rankings over the last few years. Oxford scored top points overall for culture and architecture. This comes in the same month as receiving a highly commended award from the Tourism ExSellence Awards 2006 for business tourism. In spite of the University City having its academic origins spanning almost a thousand years, it has also been named as 'Britain's Sexiest City 2006' by nearly 200,000 voters in the annual Railcard inspired award. Add to this the fact that Oxford is home to the current Miss England, Eleanor Glynn, and you can see that there's more to Oxford than academic excellence, Inspector Morse and the 'Dreaming Spires'.
Oxford has also been nominated as the 6th best city in the UK in which to dine by the "Which? Good Food Guide 2007". There were 11 Oxford restaurants mentioned in the guide and Oxford ranked top in terms of city size, against London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds and Glasgow.
Accordingly, Oxford has continued recognition once again as being one of the most vibrant and exciting cities in the UK, either to work in or just to visit.
Some other facts highlight the ever-growing popularity of the City - it sees the 4th highest number of international visitors in England and some 7.8 million visitors overall, making over 9.6 million night stays. The region within an hour's drive of Oxford sees more overseas staying visits than the whole of Scotland and Wales put together. Every day 40,000 people commute into the city.
Last year, some 700,000 people saw the grounds of Blenheim Palace, just 1.5 miles from Oxford Airport and over 3.5 million visited the Bicester Village designer retail outlet just 10 minutes away.
Centred amongst the prime southern UK tourist destinations outside of London, including Bath, the Cotswolds, Stratford Upon Avon, Warwick and Windsor, Oxford is better placed than almost any other UK destination to host visitors to the UK for trips of any duration.
Hotels such as the new Malmaison at the newly restored Oxford Castle area epitomise the 'New Oxford' scene, ranking as one of highest 'Hot List' positions for UK hotels by CN Traveller magazine and routinely winning the Hotel Group of the Year awards for the last four years. Staying in one of the original prison cells (as filmed in the original 'Italian Job'), is a unique experience!
For aviators and aircraft owners looking for an excuse to fly through Oxford Airport, there have never been as many as there are today.
For enquiries on making a visit, call us at +44 (0)1865 290 710 for advice on how best to make your time here, no matter how fleeting a visit.
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