AITO Awards

Final Winners Announced
Winners of the prestigious AITO Travel Writer of the Year Awards 2017
announced - along with a new AITO Directory of Members, the first in six years

18th October 2017

The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO, www.aito.com) has announced the results of its 21st Travel Writer of the Year awards. This year saw the highest number of entries since the awards began in 1997, with almost 300 articles submitted, all of an exceptionally high standard.

Alongside the Travel Writer of the Year awards, AITO is proud to launch its new Directory of Members, the first for the past six years. Says Derek Moore, Chairman of AITO: “While print may be harder to keep up to date than online publications, AITO’s Council felt strongly that a print publication listing details of all AITO members was a valuable aide memoire of its 120 members and their key holiday specialities. We shall also issue quarterly updates, and hope that not only media, but also the travel trade and the consumer, will find this Directory very helpful.”

There were five Travel Writer of the Year awards presented yesterday (see below). The judges reviewed entries according to four criteria, seeking copy that is inspirational, that is informative, that is interesting and that is also well-written. The first round of marking was judged by 17 AITO members.

THE WINNERS

AITO Travel Writer of the Year

This is the most hotly contested award and some of the most respected travel journalists in the industry have featured on the roll of honour, which recognises excellence in the huge field of travel writing.

There are now two separate categories for this award: firstly, Travel Writer of the Year (TWOTY) for articles of Under 1,500 words (for pieces that are commissioned to be short and punchy) and, secondly, Travel Writer of the Year for articles of Over 1,500 words, for those articles that can be longer and more descriptive, as briefed by the commissioning editor.

AITO TWOTY Over 1,500 words

The AITO Travel Writer of the Year Over 1,500 words award went to Stanley Stewart for ‘The Secret Trail to Machu Picchu’, a piece for Condé Nast Traveller. It was a first-time win for this talented writer, and all judges were in agreement that his article was of the highest quality. One judge commented: “This fine writer spins colourful tales from a series of brief encounters with the people of Peru.” Another said: “He puts precisely into perspective where the Inca civilisation sits in history with a short observation; no mean feat.” Stanley received a cash award of £350 plus a magnum of champagne.

In second place, for his article ‘Nepal is Back’ for The Times, was Tom Chesshyre, who penned an excellent piece on how holiday makers are now venturing back to Nepal, following the disastrous earthquake two years ago.

In third place was Chris Leadbeater for his piece on the treasures of Tanutamun, Sudan, in The Sunday Telegraph; it revealed a little-visited region with huge cultural significance, featuring over 200 pyramids.

AITO TWOTY Under 1,500 words

In first place, winning the coveted AITO Travel Writer of the Year Under 1,500 words award, for his piece on ‘Mexico’s Undiscovered Coast’ for The Sunday Times, was the very talented writer - and previous winner (2006, 2008) - Chris Haslam. One judge described how the “quirkily humorous descriptions brought the slightly off-the-wall nature of the area completely to life”. Chris received a cash award of £350 plus a magnum of champagne.

In second place was an article about the extraordinary female free divers of South Korea, featured in SUITCASE magazine, by Jonathan Thompson.

In joint third place were Kerry Christiani for her piece on Svalbard, Norway, in Lonely Planet Traveller magazine, and Jane Knight for her piece on Cambodia in The Times.

AITO Young Travel Writer of the Year

This award celebrates travel writing talent in the under-30s. This was a very close field of entries indeed - one of the closest ever – as all of those shortlisted were only a few marks away from being in the top three.

In first place was Sophie McGrath for her article in Lonely Planet Traveller on road tripping around the Great Lakes of the USA, which one judge called outstanding and another commented: “A comprehensive article laid out in bite-sized chunks, making it easy for the reader to digest. I like the way she mixes heritage with nature, artisan products and edgy city life – something for everyone.” Sophie received a cash award of £350 plus a magnum of champagne.

In second place was Guy Kelly, with his article on ‘how the future is bright for Colombia’ in The Telegraph Magazine.

In third place, for his article on Cuba in Gentleman’s Journal, was Jonathan Wells.

AITO Travel Trade Writer of the Year

This award recognises the technical writing abilities of travel trade writers – including the understanding of complex travel industry issues that is required of them on occasion.

In first place was Pippa Jacks for her piece entitled ‘Galapagos Galore’ in TTG. One judge said “carefully-crafted, this piece gives a very good insight into what trips to the Galapagos will be like - perfect material for the publication’s readers to use in a practical way.” Pippa received a cash award of £250 plus a magnum of champagne.

In second place was John Fitzsimons, for his article entitled ‘Tomorrow’s Travellers’, which was featured in ABTA magazine.

In third place was Jenny Southan, who wins for her Business Traveller piece on Iran.

AITO Travel Blogger of the Year

This category recognises the increasing influence of travel bloggers and their role within the travel writing community.

In first place, the winning piece by Hannah Summers from her blog Burgers and Bruce, entitled ‘Out in the street in Tokyo, Japan’, is a blog post about which one judge said: “This is an incredibly punchy and quirky approach, which grabs you and makes you run with it.” Hannah received a cash award of £250 plus a magnum of champagne.

In second place is an article entitled ‘Iceland and Tourism: Where the Wild Things Were’, by Kait Reynolds, published on her blog Flaked Blog.

In third place, for her piece on Cycling From Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in her blog Vicky Flip Flop, is Vicky Philpott.

Chairman of AITO, Derek Moore, said: “Huge congratulations to all of the entrants for such a high standard yet again this year.

“As usual, it’s been a mammoth but very interesting exercise for the judges. I would like to say a special thanks to the five sponsors who contributed the most welcome cash prizes for the winners - Inntravel, Pettitts Travel, On Foot Holidays, Abercrombie & Kent and InsideAsia Tours. And thanks are also due to the 17 AITO members who kindly contributed their time and expertise to act as judges for the first round of these awards – not to mention the five second-round judges, who carefully sifted through the best of the best to come up with our final winners.

"I’d also like to thank the writers. There were so many excellently written pieces, about so many fascinating destinations around the world, that reading the entries was positively inspiring. Words continue to have great power in this age of technology; they create desire to visit a destination, and deliver tourism that works for the greater good in the vast majority of cases.”

For further information on AITO’s Travel Writer of the Year Awards, visit www.aito.com.

Ends

Notes to editors:

Many congratulations to all winners, and thanks to all entrants, too! Shortlisted from a total of 298 entries, the names of those who scored highest are as follows, in alphabetic order:

AITO Travel Writer of the Year (Over 1,500 words) – top 15 in alphabetic order:
• Tom Chesshyre, The Times, Nepal
• Martin Hemming, The Sunday Times, New Zealand
• Geoff Hill, The Weekend Australian, Vietnam
• Michelle Jana Chan, Telegraph’s Ultratravel magazine, East Greenland
• Lauren Jarvis, Spear's 100 Travel Guide, Kenya
• Jane Knight, The Times, Namibia
• Chris Leadbeater, The Sunday Telegraph, Sudan
• Duncan Madden, Escapism, Senegal
• Laura Millar, Escapism, Iran
• Aaron Millar, National Geographic Traveller, Texas
• Toby Skinner, N by Norwegian (Norwegian Air), Norway's Arctic
• Oliver Smith, Lonely Planet Traveller, Armenia
• Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveller, Peru
• James Stewart, The Telegraph, Canada
• Mark Stratton, Wanderlust, South China's Himalaya

AITO Travel Writer of the Year (Under 1,500 words) – top 15 in alphabetic order:
• Abigail Butcher, The Telegraph, Sri Lanka
• Kerry Christiani, The Lonely Planet Traveller, Norway
• Duncan Craig, The Sunday Times, Tour de France
• Danielle Demetriou, FT’s How to Spend It, Japan
• Chris Haslam, The Sunday Times, Mexico
• Robert Hull, The Guardian, Iceland's Fjords
• Brian Jackman, The Sunday Telegraph, Central Sweden
• Jane Knight, The Times, Cambodia
• Monisha Rajesh, SUITCASE magazine, Tibet
• Ellie Ross, The Guardian, Sheffield
• John Simpson, BA High Life, Australia
• Nigel Tisdall, The Daily Telegraph, The Caribbean
• Jonathan Thompson, SUITCASE magazine, South Korea
• Tommy Trenchard, b.inspired (Brussels Airlines), The Congo
• Nicola Trup, Independent.co.uk, Kilimanjaro (Africa)

AITO Young Travel Writer of the Year – top 10 in alphabetic order:
• Cathy Adams, Independent.co.uk, China
• Alex Allen, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Umbria
• Stephanie Cavagnaro, National Geographic Traveller, Jamaica
• Helen Coffey, Independent.co.uk, Ibiza
• Will Coldwell, The Guardian, Chamonix
• Harriet Constable, Nomad magazine, Nairobi to Mombasa by train
• Ben Clatworthy, The Times, Croatia’s islands
• Guy Kelly, The Telegraph magazine, Colombia
• Sophie McGrath, Lonely Planet Traveller, America’s Great Lakes
• Jonathan Wells, Gentleman’s Journal, Cuba

AITO Travel Trade Writer of the Year – top 6 in alphabetic order:
• John Fitzsimons, ABTA magazine, Busting myths around millennial travellers
• Laura French, Travel Weekly, Swedish Lapland
• April Hutchinson, TTG Luxury, Cambodia
• Pippa Jacks, TTG, Galapagos Islands
• Rupert Parker, Selling Travel, Morocco
• Jenny Southan, Business Traveller, Iran

AITO Travel Blogger of the Year – top 6 in alphabetic order:
• Lisa Gerard-Sharp, Avanti Travel Blog, The French Riviera
• Vicky Philpott, Vicky Flip Flop, Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam
• Gabriel Power, Hidden Gabe, Dnipro – Ukraine
• Josephine Price, Country by Country, Iceland
• Kait Reynolds, Flaked Blog, Iceland
• Hannah Summers, Burgers and Bruce, Tokyo – Japan

Press: For further information on AITO, please contact Travel PR on 020 8891 4440 or email Rebecca Milne (r.milne@travelpr.co.uk), Jackie Franklin (j.franklin@travelpr.co.uk) or Sue Ockwell (s.ockwell@travelpr.co.uk).

Many thanks to our awards sponsors: Inntravel, Pettits, On Foot Holidays, InsideAsia Tours and Abercrombie & Kent

2017 shortlist
The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) has today announced the short list for the prestigious annual AITO Travel Writer of the Year awards. The five categories – Travel Writer of the Year (Over 1,500 words), Travel Writer of the Year (Under 1,500 words), Young Travel Writer of the Year, Travel Trade Writer of the Year and the Travel Blogger of the Year – were shortlisted from a total of 298 entries, which is the highest number received since the awards started in 1997.

Shortlists:


AITO Travel Writer of the Year (Over 1,500 words):


Tom Chesshyre, The Times, Nepal
Martin Hemming, The Sunday Times, New Zealand
Geoff Hill, The Weekend Australian, Vietnam
Michelle Jana Chan, Telegraph’s Ultratravel magazine, East Greenland
Lauren Jarvis, Spear's 100 Travel Guide, Kenya
Jane Knight, The Times, Namibia
Chris Leadbeater, The Sunday Telegraph, Sudan
Duncan Madden, Escapism, Senegal
Laura Millar, Escapism, Iran
Aaron Millar, National Geographic Traveller, Texas
Toby Skinner, N by Norwegian (Norwegian Air), Norway's Arctic
Oliver Smith, Lonely Planet Traveller, Armenia
Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveller, Peru
James Stewart, The Telegraph, Canada
Mark Stratton, Wanderlust, South China's Himalaya Range


AITO Travel Writer of the Year (Under 1,500 words):


Abigail Butcher, The Telegraph, Sri Lanka
Kerry Christiani, The Lonely Planet Traveller, Norway
Duncan Craig, The Sunday Times, Tour de France
Danielle Demetriou, FT’s How to Spend It, Japan
Chris Haslam, The Sunday Times, Mexico
Robert Hull, The Guardian, Iceland's Fjords
Brian Jackman, The Sunday Telegraph, Central Sweden
Jane Knight, The Times, Cambodia
Monisha Rajesh, SUITCASE magazine, Tibet
Ellie Ross, The Guardian, Sheffield
John Simpson, BA High Life, Australia
Nigel Tisdall, The Daily Telegraph, The Caribbean
Jonathan Thompson, SUITCASE magazine, South Korea
Tommy Trenchard, b.inspired (Brussels Airlines), The Congo
Nicola Trup, Independent.co.uk, Kilimanjaro (Africa)


AITO Young Travel Writer of the Year:


Cathy Adams, Independent.co.uk, China
Alex Allen, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Umbria
Stephanie Cavagnaro, National Geographic Traveller, Jamaica
Helen Coffey, Independent.co.uk, Ibiza
Will Coldwell, The Guardian, Chamonix
Harriet Constable, Nomad magazine, Nairobi to Mombasa by train
Ben Clatworthy, The Times, Croatia’s islands
Guy Kelly, The Telegraph magazine, Colombia
Sophie McGrath, Lonely Planet Traveller, America’s great lakes
Jonathan Wells, Gentleman’s Journal, Cuba


AITO Travel Trade Writer of the Year:


John Fitzsimons, ABTA magazine, Busting myths around millennial travellers
Laura French, Travel Weekly, Swedish Lapland
April Hutchinson, TTG Luxury, Cambodia
Pippa Jacks, TTG, Galapagos Islands
Rupert Parker, Selling Travel, Morocco
Jenny Southan, Business Traveller, Iran


AITO Travel Blogger of the Year:


Lisa Gerard-Sharp, Avanti Travel Blog, The French Riviera
Vicky Philpott, Vicky Flip Flop, Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam
Gabriel Power, Hidden Gabe, Dnipro – Ukraine
Josephine Price, Country by Country, Iceland
Kait Reynolds, Flaked Blog, Iceland
Hannah Summers, Burgers and Bruce, Tokyo – Japan


The winners will be announced, and the awards presented, at this year’s AITO Meets the Media event, held between 3pm and 6pm on Tuesday 17 October at Central Hall, Westminster. Please RSVP to events@travelpr.co.uk before 5pm on Tuesday 3 October.


If you are a bona fide journalist and would like to attend AITO’s Meet the Media event, please apply for an invitation, quoting your usual outlets and your interests, by emailing events@travelpr.co.uk.


Thank you to everyone who entered the AITO Travel Writer of the Year awards. Entries were of an extremely high standard, and the competition for places on the short list was more intense than ever. Good luck to those shortlisted!


For further information, visit www.aito.com.


Ends/ 5 September 2017


Press: For further information on AITO, please contact Travel PR on 020 8891 4440 or email Rebecca Milne (r.milne@travelpr.co.uk) or Sue Ockwell (s.ockwell@travelpr.co.uk).

AITO Travel Writer Awards

Many thanks to our 2017 sponsors of the AITO Travel Writer Awards. They will be offering cash prizes to our well deserved winners and will be there to present the awards on the night. All sponsors are members of AITO, click on the member name to find out more about the tour operator.


Travel Writer of the Year – long (over 1,500 words) - Inntravel


Travel Writer of the Year – short (under 1,500 words - Pettitts


Young Travel Writer of the Year (aged 30 and under) - On Foot Holidays


Blogger of the Year - InsideAsia Tours

UPDATE
Many thanks for everyone’s entries – the shortlisted entrants will be announced on aito.com on Tuesday 5 September and the awards will be presented at this year’s AITO Meets the Media event, to be held between 3pm and 6.30pm on Tuesday 17 October, 2017, at Central Hall, Westminster.

Best of luck!


AITO team

The five categories include:
Young Travel Writer of the Year (aged 30 and under): Prize - £350 in cash
Travel Writer of the Year – short (under 1,500 words): Prize - £350 in cash
Travel Writer of the Year – long (over 1,500 words): Prize - £350 in cash
Blogger of the Year: Prize - £250 in cash
Trade Writer of the Year: Prize - £250 in cash
AITO Travel Writer of the Year
‘Under 1,500 words’
‘Over 1,500 words’

The AITO Travel Writer of the Year award is the ultimate accolade for travel writers. Recognising excellence in the field of travel writing, this prestigious award is always an impressive entry on any writer’s CV. Past winners include some of the most-respected travel journalists in the industry and it’s always a hotly-contested category. Entrants must be bona fide published journalists.


Only one print - or online - article per writer. The article must have been published between
18 August 2016 and 1 August 2017.


AITO Young Travel Writer of the Year (30 and under)


This award is designed to celebrate the achievements of younger travel journalists. It is open to bona fide published journalists who are aged 30 and under on 1 August 2017.


Only one print - or online - article per writer. The article must have been published between
18 August 2016 and 1 August 2017.


AITO Travel Blogger of the Year


This award recognises the increasing influence of travel bloggers and their creativity, many of which write eloquently and illustrate their posts beautifully.


Only one blog per writer, which must have been published between 18 August 2016 and
1 August 2017.


AITO Travel Trade Writer of the Year


This award recognises the technical writing abilities of travel trade writers – and sometimes that understanding of complex travel industry issues. Trade articles tend to be less descriptive/colourful pieces and more informative, such as trade-specific pieces on companies which sell via the travel trade and travel agencies/industry suppliers.


Only one article per writer and it must have been published between 18 August 2016 and
1 August 2017.


What the judges are looking for?



For AITO Young Travel Writer of the Year, Travel Writer of the Year and AITO Travel Blogger of the Year, AITO judges will be looking for articles that fit the winning formula of being well-written, interesting, informative and inspirational.


For AITO Travel Trade Writer of the Year, AITO judges will be looking for articles that are well-written, informative, clear and concise.


Writers can enter more than one category but only one submission per individual category will be accepted. Submissions do not have to mention AITO or AITO members.


Entries should be submitted by 6pm on Tuesday 1 August. The shortlisted entrants will be announced on aito.com on Tuesday 5 September and the awards will be presented at this year’s AITO Meets the Media event, to be held between 3pm and 6.30pm on Tuesday 17 October, 2017, at Central Hall, Westminster.



We’re requesting all articles to be sent as good quality PDFs or email links to the article, to save a huge amount of printing!



Please email your article to events@travelpr.co.uk. It would help enormously if you could put the following information in the title of the PDF or in your email above/below the link; it’ll save a lot of time…


Name, publication, category (e.g. save the PDF as Doug Smith, Wanderlust, Young Travel Writer Short.PDF)


We look forward to receiving either personal entries written by you or, if you are an editor, copies of articles that you have commissioned/published and feel are worthy of recognition.


Good luck; the judges look forward to reading your entries!


*

If you use Twitter, please use the following hashtags:
Meet the Media hashtag #AITOMTM17
Travel Writer of the Year hashtag #AITOTWOTY17


Best wishes,


The AITO team


Many Thanks to our Judges

Many thanks to our judges for their time and dedication to finding articles with that winning-formula: well-known, interesting, informative and inspirational. This year we have 18 AITO members participating in judging, of whom we offer our sincerest thanks and appreciation.


Alison Garcia Hall - Inntravell
David Owen - Kudu Travell
Aled Evans - Undiscovered Destinationsl
Melissa Hirst - Pettittsl
Ted Wake - Kirker Holidaysl
John Thirtle - Geodysseyl
Jess Millett - Tucan Travell
John Telfer - Explorel
James Mundy - InsideAsia Toursl
Rachel Healey - Abercrombie & Kentl
Simon Scutt - On Foot Holidaysl
Katie Cosstick - Cox and Kingl
Jackie Woon - Oasis Overlandl
Hollie Youlden - On the Go Toursl
Gerry Copsey - Just Grenada Groupl
Mandy Davies - Azure Collectionl
Heather McKinlay - McKinlay Kiddl
Tom Duncan - Ciceroni

19 October 2016
The Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) has announced the results of its 20th Travel Writer of the Year awards. This year saw the highest number of entries since the awards began in 1997, with 240 articles submitted, all of an exceptionally high standard.
For the first time, AITO introduced a brand new category – Travel Trade Writer of the Year.
Additionally, after much deliberation, and following a suggestion from a high-profile writer, there were two separate categories for the Travel Writer of the Year Award: Under 1,500 words (for articles commissioned to be short and punchy) and Over 1,500 words (for those that can be as long and descriptive as the writer wishes).
Shortlisted from a total of 240 entries, the names of those who scored highest are as follows:
The top 10 places for the AITO Travel Writer of the Year award 2016 (Over 1,500 words) were as follows:
1. Liz Edwards, The Sunday Times Travel magazine
2. Hannah McKeand, SUITCASE magazine
3. Chris Haslam, The Sunday Times
4. Sarah Barrell, National Geographic Traveller
5. Alicia Miller, The Sunday Times Travel magazine
6. Nick Boulos, Wanderlust
7. Paul Bloomfield, The Sunday Telegraph
8. Nicky Holford, The Guardian
9. Sue Watt, The Daily Telegraph
10. Martin Hemming, The Sunday Times
11. Kerry Christiani, Lonely Planet Traveller
12. Annie Bennett, The Financial Times
The top 10 places for the AITO Travel Writer of the Year award 2016 (Under 1,500 words) were as follows:
1. Michelle Jana Chan, The Daily Telegraph
2. Aaron Miller, The Times
3. Rachel Johnson, Town & Country magazine
4. Matthew Teller, BBC News magazine
5. Ben Lerwill, Rough Guides
6. Nigel Tisdall, Marie Claire magazine
7. Jeremy Head, The Guardian
8. Simon Heptinstall, The Mail on Sunday
9. Richard Mellor, The Explorer
10. Jamie Lafferty, The Guardian
11. Sarah Bailey, Red magazine
12. Janine Di Giovanni, Harper’s Bazaar
The top eight places for the AITO Young Travel Writer of the Year award 2016 were as follows:
1. Francesca Angelini, The Sunday Times
2. Simon Parker, The Daily Telegraph
3. Emily Ames, SUITCASE magazine
4. Alex Allen, The Sunday Times
5. Cathy Adams, Escapism
6. Sophie McGrath, The Lonely Planet Traveller
7. Hazel Plush, The Daily Telegraph
8. Nicola Trup, The Independent
The top five places for the Travel Trade Writer of the Year 2016 were as follows:
1. Joanna Booth, Aspire
2. Josephine Price, ABTA magazine
3. Meera Dattani, Travel Weekly
4. Tamara Hinson, Travel Weekly
5. Sophie Griffiths, TTG
6. Lauren Jarvis, Selling Travel
The top five places for the AITO Travel Blogger of the Year award 2016 are as follows:
1. James Draven, Dearlydepartures.com
2. Emma Gregg, AllAboutEverywhere.com
3. Mike Gerrard, TravelDistilled.com
4. Hannah Summers, Burgersandbruce.com
5. David Whitley, Countrybycountry.com
6. Phoebe Smith, Wanderlust.com

Best AITO Operator, Agent and Affiliate
The Association of Independent Tour Operators (www.aito.com) celebrated its 40th anniversary at a special dinner and awards ceremony last night (Tuesday 23 February) in the dazzling Gladstone Library and Reading & Writing Room of the Royal Horseguards Hotel, London.

Over 150 AITO Tour Operators, AITO Agents, Affiliated Business Partners and Tourist Offices, Social and Honorary members and special guests attended. Simon Reeve – the British author, television presenter and explorer – was the special guest for the evening and delivered an inspirational speech. AITO was also delighted that Colin Murison Small, its founder and very first chairman, was able to attend the event.

AITO’s members’ awards, which have been reintroduced after a gap of a few years and are now based around client reviews on AITO.com. The categories were AITO Tour Operator of the Year, AITO Agent of the Year and AITO Affiliate of the Year.

2015 AITO Tour Operator of the Year

This award goes to the member which has had exceptional customer reviews on AITO.com during 2015. The number of reviews had to be 10% or more of the total annual passengers carried to ensure a true reflection of that company's performance.

Gold: Peter Sommer Travels
Silver: CICERONI Travel
Bronze: The Mountain Company

2015 AITO Agent of the Year

This award goes to the AITO Agent which has made bookings with the largest number of AITO tour operators during 2015 as voted by AITO’s tour operators.

Gold: Traveller’s World Salisbury
Silver: Journeys à la Carte
Bronze: Deva Travel

2015 AITO Affiliate of the Year

This award goes to the AITO Business Partner which provided the best service and product in 2015 as voted by AITO tour operators and agents.

Joint Gold winners: 3For and Holiday Extras
Bronze: Faremine