Press Room

AITO announces 2011 Travel Writer of the Year awards

AITO today announces the results of its 15^thTravel Writer of the Yearawards. The three award categories – Travel Writer of the Year, Online Travel Writer of the Year, and Young Travel Writer of the Year – were presented at the AITO Meets the Media event held at the Science Museum in Kensington (on the afternoon of 12^thOctober).

Says AITO Chairman, Derek Moore: “Now in its 15^thyear, the AITO Travel Writer of the Year is a sought-after accolade among travel journalists. Standards were extremely high across the board this year - there was only half a point between first and second place for the Travel Writer of the Year award, a sign of how close the competition really is.”

AITO Travel Writer of the Year

In third place, Mike Unwin’s ‘A (big) river runs through it’ article, written for The Independent, described a new luxury cruise that offers the chance to explore the wonders of the Peruvian Amazon in style and was “an inspirational and informative read, yet refreshingly informal in style; it was encouraging to see Sustainable Tourism featured”.

In joint second place is Matt Bolton with his ‘Trails of the delta’ feature aboutBotswana forLonely Planet magazine and Ian Belcher for his ‘Lovestruck by Bolivia’ forThe Sunday Times. Comments from the judges included: “Full of energy, evocative of the place and highly informative” for Matt Bolton, and “colourful description and a great read” for Ian Belcher.

The winner of the AITO Travel Writer of the Year 2011 award, for the second year running, is Stephen Bleach, writing for The Sunday Times with a piece entitled ‘Set co-ordinates for the bar, Skipper’based off the coast of Belize.Described as “a lively and amusing piece that made you want to read on” and “witty, superbly crafted and entertaining” by two of the judges, this article was deemed to be a worthy winner from “a consistently excellent travel writer.”

AITO Online Travel Writer of the Year

This category was introduced two years ago to reward the many excellent articles that are written for online outlets. The winner is Mike Gerrard writing for thetraveleditor.com with his article ‘A Trip on San Francisco’s Magic Bus’. One judge felt “as if I was on the bus with him” and another said it was “an unpretentious piece of writing and thoroughly engaging”.

AITO Young Travel Writer of the Year

Comments Derek Moore: “There are a few new names this year, which is always good to see as the young blood/new talent starts to come through.” The winner is Nick Boulos writing for Wanderlust Magazine and his piece ‘Paradise Found’, on Panama’s San Blas archipelago. Members of the judging panel were clearly impressed with the quality of writing that offered “an engaging style full of choice phrases about a little-known region.”

AITO welcomes one entry per person for its Travel Writer of the Year Awards, and encourages travel editors to enter pieces that have been published on their pages during the course of the calendar year. 

For further information, visit www.aito.com.

Ends  13 October 2011

Press:  For further information, visit www.aito.com, contact Sue Ockwell at Travel PR on 020 8891 4440 or email s.ockwell@travelpr.co.uk.

Notes to editors:Shortlisted out of over 200 entries, the top five winners for the AITO Travel Writer of the Year award are:

1. Steve Bleach
2. Matt Bolton and Ian Belcher
3. Mike Unwin
4. Chris Haslam

The top five winners for the AITO Online Travel Writer of the Year are:

1. Mike Gerrard
2. Chris Leadbeater
3. Nick Roe
4. William Gray
5. Greg Parmley

The top five winners for the AITO Young Writer of the Year are:

1. Nick Boulos
2. Daisy Greenwell and Nicola Iseard
3. Oliver Smith
4. Martin Hemming