Shark diving experience is awarded 'Best Tourism Experience'

A UNIQUE shark diving programme at the Blue Planet Aquarium, Cheshire Oaks, has won Best Tourism Experience of the Year.
The aquarium won the title at the Visit Chester and Cheshire awards ceremony this month.
The sixth annual awards, held at Chester Racecourse, celebrated businesses demonstrating innovation, quality and achievement within the tourism and visitor economy. Blue Planet is the only aquarium in England to offer shark diving experiences.
The Shark Encounter experience enables absolute beginners to dive with three-metre-long sharks.
Commenting on the award, Visit Chester and Cheshire said: “The judges thought that this was a unique, memorable and very special experience certainly giving the wow factor.
“The judges also thought that the winner showed innovative marketing and fantastic improvements to the customer experience alongside very good staff investment.
“Overall the judges thought this entry was fantastic and a real asset to the destination.”
The judges also commended the excellent facilities for disabled divers.
Accompanied at all times by instructors, small groups are able to explore the vast ocean reef display and enjoy incredibly close encounters with sand tiger, lemon and nurse sharks as well as stingrays and a host of other spectacular marine creatures.
Blue Planet Aquarium’s dive officer, Kelly Timmins, said: “Our Shark Encounter and other diving activities enable people with no previous diving experience to explore an entirely new underwater environment.
“They provide a truly memorable experience that people remember for the rest of their lives and also allow them to form a much closer relationship both to the marine environment and the incredible creatures that live in it,” she added.