WITH 229 years of continuous hospitality behind it, The Three Tuns pub, in Coppergate, York, prides itself on being a tourist destination in its own right.

So “mine host” Jason Hawkins recognises the need to make everyone who visits his pub feel hugely welcome and liable to get happy advice about things to do and see in the ancient capital from any of his ten staff.

Because The Three Tuns is not a chain, it’s personalised, says Jason. “We don’t employ robots that simply go through the motions. We genuinely want all customers to have a good experience.”

That is why the pub is being pitched for the Tourism And Hospitality Business Of The Year – and why Jason himself is being put forward as a possible Business Personality Of The Year.

He is one of a rare breed of landlords who grew up in the industry and made a successful career in it. He’s done the gamut of pub jobs from barman to area manager.

Now he is in his third year of a 20-year lease at The Three Tuns having succeeded in his mission to turn it into one of the city’s finest traditional pubs.

Its unusual, customer-focused features include:

• Offering an ever-changing range of award-winning cask ales, all of which can be sampled free the better to make a choice

• Offering cask ales in taster trays of three one-third pints so customers can compare without having to down more than they might have wished

• Serving home-made mulled cider in the winter months

• Creating a menu of homemade British pub classics and home made daily specials

• Sourcing food from York firms and also from farms in Yorkshire

Having achieved a diploma in licensed hospitality from the British Institute of Innkeepers, as well as being a Fellow of the Institute, Jason is soon to be made a mentor to help other innkeepers achieve his standards.