2011 was yet another record breaking season for Chester Racecourse, with sales across the business being up by 4% and the number of people passing through the racecourse throughout the season increasing by 15%, despite the continued economic downturn.

2012 promises to also deliver commercial success with the company increasing its outside catering division and the introduction of chesterBET, a pioneering new betting proposition for the UK.

Already the 2012 landscape for the company looks positive, pre-Christmas ticket and hospitality sales were up  56% on the same period last year. There is a new race day in the calendar, taking it to 15 in total for the season. As a result of the continued success and popularity of the Coutts Polo International (1st and 2nd June 2012), a further Polo event will take place in August (10th and 11th August).

As part of the Racecourse’s continuing development, less than 3 months after its re-launch, Chester Racecourse’s new website came out top in a recent assessment by VisitEngland.

In 2010, the Racecourse’s website was brought in-house to allow the team greater control of the site, enabling them to easily create and update content making the website more appealing to customers and a more efficient sales and reference tool.

In October 2011 the website underwent a full re-design, as a result, three months after its launch the number of unique visitors to the website pre-Christmas increased by 23% compared to the same period in 2010. 

“When we redeveloped the site we knew we had to deliver something that set the company apart in our sector and had to provide a customer-friendly e-commerce site that makes the buying experience and sourcing information simple”, said Rebecca Masters Marketing and Communications Executive, creator of the Racecourse’s new site.

VisitEngland assessed Chester Racecourse’s site against the top five national and local racecourses.  The research was part of the Quality Assured Racecourse Scheme commissioned by the Racecourse Association through the Racing for Change project. 

James Berresford, Chief Executive of VisitEngland, commented: “Chester Racecourse continues to excel in our Quality Assessment scheme and offers visitors an excellent all-round experience. It is particularly encouraging to see how they have taken on board comments from the independent assessor and improved elements of importance to the new race goer with investment into high quality interpretation.  Their impressive race day entertainment provides added value for visitors of all ages.”