Brunel’s SS Great Britain, Bristol’s most-popular visitor attraction, has been judged the friendliest and most-welcoming museum in Europe.
Judges of the prestigious European Museum of the Year Awards awarded the iconic ship and its Being Brunel experience the prestigious Portimão Prize – the only UK attraction to feature among the winners. 
Judges said that all elements of SS Great Britain – its human qualities and physical environment – contributed to its welcome feeling along with events and activities in and around the museum.
“The museum’s core values are surprise, authenticity, fascination, excellence, and relevance,” said their citation.
“These are expressed in every aspect of its work, most notably in the quality of welcome provided to visitors by its highly trained and enthusiastic staff and volunteers.”
The award is the latest landed by the SS Great Britain. In February it in won a joint gold award for Tourism Innovation and a bronze for Large Attraction of the Year in the South West Tourism Awards and scooped the Best Tourism Project 2018 from the British Guild of Travel Writers.
Meanwhile the £7.2m Being Brunel museum, pictured, which opened just over a year ago and is the world’s only public collection dedicated to the exploring the life and legacy of the engineering genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is in the running for the prestigious South West Civil Engineering Award, staged by the Institute of Civil Engineers. 
SS Great Britain Trust chief executive Matthew Tanner said: “Receiving this fantastic recognition for the friendly welcome and outstanding experience we give to visitors is amazing. We have more costumed characters, volunteers and staff than ever before, all contributing to giving visitors the best immersive day out as they step back in time and feel Victorian history and innovation come alive around them.
“With the new Being Brunel experience now open and the addition of family programming during school holidays, we’re seeing even more visitors using the year-round free return visits as there’s too much to see during one single visit.”
The European Museum of the Year Awards (EMYA) are organised by the European Museum Forum (EMF), and were held last week in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in collaboration with the War Childhood Museum, winner of the 2018 Council of Europe Museum Prize.
The top prize went to the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in the Netherlands. The prize for Europe’s most welcoming museum is sponsored by the Municipality of Portimao, Portugal.
Pictured: Matthew Tanner, right, receives the award from José Gameiro, representing the city of Portimão, Portugal, and former president of the international jury of the European Museum of the Year Award
