Chester Racecourse Win Taste Of Racecourses Award and Rank Top 10 For Customer Experience

We are delighted to announce that Chester Racecourse has won the Taste of Racecourses category in the 2022 Quality Assured Racecourse Scheme (QARS). As well as this, Chester has ranked in the top 10 racecourses for customer experience.

The Quality Assured Racecourse Scheme, aims to objectively assess the raceday experience from the perspective of customers and sees each racecourse visited by a trained assessor from LiveTourism, analysing all touchpoints of the customer experience including pre-raceday information, the on-course experience and post-raceday communications.

As the first year with full attendances uninterrupted by Government restrictions, the 2022 Quality Assured Racecourse Scheme was a critical investment by the RCA to understand the impact of the enforced breaks on raceday operation and customer experience.

A clear trend that was evident during the assessments was the provision and retention of temporary event staff. Racecourses, alongside all major sports and leisure venues, remain in fierce competition to recruit temporary staff to safely accommodate large crowds. This has, unsurprisingly, impacted customer experience in some areas of the racecourse. The average score of 76%, a ‘good’ rating, acknowledges this fact and that racecourses remain dedicated to offering a great day out despite these challenges.

In addition, RCA Excellence Accolades were presented to racecourses that achieved exemplary scores in specific areas of the assessments. These accolades were presented at the 2022 RCA Showcase & Awards at Pontefract Racecourse in November:

Paul Swain, the RCA’s Raceday Experience & Communications Manager, said “We were pleased to reintroduce the Quality Assured Racecourse Scheme in 2022 after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme demonstrates the RCA and its members’ ongoing commitment to reviewing and enhancing the raceday experience. ‘’

“2022 has been a challenging year for racecourses with inflation, soaring energy bills and the wider cost of living crisis. This, along with the difficulties of securing staff, has meant that racecourses have had to adapt and innovate to continue to offer the experiences our racegoers are accustomed to.’’

“I’m delighted to see a number of racecourses recognised by experts at LiveTourism via the results here and the Excellence Accolades. The generous sharing of best practice across our members is second to none and we look forward to continuing facilitating this in 2023.”

We would like to thank all our staff here at Chester Racecourse for their hard work throughout the 2022 season and for making results like this possible, and we look forward to a successful season in 2023.