City champions in the running for tourism award

Lily-Rose Sheppard said she cried after she found out she had made the VisitEngland shortlist

Two figures of the West Midlands' tourism sector have been nominated for a national award.

Lily-Rose Sheppard, a kayak tour guide in Birmingham, and Pete Chambers, the director of Coventry Music Museum, are two of the ten people in the running to be named VisitEngland’s annual Tourism Superstar.

Both said they were amazed to be nominated.

The overall winner is set to be chosen through a public vote.

Ms Sheppard says that at peak times, she can take multiple tours out on the water each day

Ms Sheppard said the nomination "blows my mind".

"I absolutely love what I do and never expected anything like that to happen, I just love showing people around Birmingham and waffling on about it," she said

She began working at Roundhouse Birmingham, from where the tours are operated, as a volunteer after being diagnosed with the painful condition fibromyalgia, which she said inspired her to do more of the activities she loved, despite her challenges.

Touring the city by kayak, she added, offered a "completely different perspective".

"I always hear the same thing, it is a lot prettier than they expected it to be, which I love because I love being like 'yeah, look at it, it is gorgeous, we have an amazing city'," Ms Sheppard said.

Pete Chambers said making the shortlist was amazing

Mr Chambers, who received a BEM for volunteering services to music in Coventry, opened the museum a decade ago to celebrate his love of the city's musical history.

The city is known as the home of two-tone music, which developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is captured in the work of The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat.

To make the shortlist for the award, he said, was "amazing".

"As far as I'm concerned, I've won anyway to get in that top ten out of hundreds, possibly thousands of other people doing great things around the country," he explained.

"We have had 40,000 people come in here from all over the world.

"We like to think we are on the map already but let's hope we can bring even more people in."

Mr Chambers' museum is home to the car used in the music video for The Specials track Ghost Town

The overal winner of the competition will be chosen through a public vote, which is due to close at the end of English Tourism Week, which runs until 24 March.

Andrew Lovett, chair of the West Midlands Tourism and Hospitality Advisory Board, said: “The West Midlands is known for its incredible welcome – and a lot of that is down to the knowledge, warmth and effort of the people working in our venues and establishments.

"Pete and Lily-Rose being shortlisted for the Tourism Superstar award exemplifies this.

"It is the efforts and support of our tourism representatives that make visits to the region welcoming and memorable, values we will continue to pursue throughout 2024."