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The 2011 British Travel Awards, which took place last night 2 November, celebrated a line up of winning travel companies as voted for by the British public. This year more than 700,000 votes were cast – three times more than last year – making The British Travel Awards (BTA) the largest independent awards scheme in the UK.
Over one thousand of the UK travel industry’s movers and shakers packed Battersea Evolution in Battersea Park, London to hear writer, broadcaster and actor, Gyles Brandreth announce the companies winning the prestigious BTA trophies. In celebration of the special forthcoming 2012 Olympics year BTA sponsor Lloyds TSB arranged for the Olympic Torch to take pride of place at the venue and the occasion was honoured with the presence of Gold winning heptathlete Denise Lewis, 100 and 400 metres paralympian Bethy Woodward, and Paralympian tennis athlete, Liam O’Reilly. In addition a special award ‘Best Spectator Sports Tours Operator’ was created to acknowledge the hard work being done by the travel industry to ensure the millions of visitors expected in London are well looked after. Thomas Cook Sport won this award, with Thomson Sport taking Silver and Gullivers Sports Travel receiving Bronze.
The battle for which company would receive the most awards, between the many brands that encompass the Thomas Cook and Thomson organisations, saw Thomson pip the post with an impressive eighteen awards against Thomas Cooks’ fifteen. Amongst their collection Thomson picked up the winning awards for Large Tour Operator of the Year, Best Travel Agency for Customer Service, Best All Inclusive Tour Operator and Best Ski and Winter Sports Tour Operator. Thomas Cook won the Best Tour Operator for its programmes to Europe & The Canary Islands, Southern Asia, East and Central Asia and its tours division won Best Escorted Tour Operator.
The Virgin brand also did well collecting a total of fifteen awards across its airline, holiday and cruise divisions including the winner Best Economy Class Airline, and Best Airline Customer Service.
But it wasn’t just about the ‘Big Boys’, a company with its HQ in Brazil won the Small Tour Operator of the Year, with the proud owners of Dehouche flying in from Rio to collect their award.
The highly prized Airline of the Year Award was given to Emirates and the UAE based airline also collected Best Business / First Class Airline. Avis, long time favourite of BTA voters, clawed back Car Hire Company of the Year, after a one-year lapse when Hertz took the crown. Cunard won Cruise Line of the Year and co-operativetravel.co.uk winning Travel Agency of the Year was one of a hat trick of awards for The Co-op! P & O, the cruiseline and the ferry division combined, picked up eight awards- all bar one the top awards, including Best Mainstream Cruise Line, Best Luxury Cruise Line and Best Family Cruise Line.
Australia is the Best Country according to BTA voters, with Florida the Best USA Holiday State and New York the Best City Break Destination. Back home the British public still love Cornwall and it was again voted Best UK Holiday County or Region, with St. Ives winning Best UK Seaside Town.
Since the British Travel Awards inception The Post Office has taken the Best Foreign Exchange / Travel Money Retailer and Best Travel Insurance Provider and this year was no exception.
For the second year running Premier Inn picked up a trio of awards with Best Leisure Hotel Chain, Best Business Hotel Chain and Hotel Chain of the Year.
BTA’s chief executive Lorraine Barnes Burton said: "From relatively small beginnings the British Travel Awards has gone from strength to strength and now in its sixth year the British public has cast an incredible number of votes for their favourite travel companies. Next year we hope to pass the one million mark – the British Travel Awards are without doubt the largest independent consumer voted independent awards scheme in the UK.
"The British Travel Awards’ the winning accolades are the benchmark for excellence when it comes to finding out who really is the best in the business of travel for the UK consumer. All winners are to be congratulated on their achievement."
Audited by Deloitte and the only travel industry accolade voted for by such a wide demographic of the UK’s travelling public, The British Travel Awards in association with Lloyds TSB Cardnet, serves to recognise all that is great about UK travel companies – according to the all important customer.
This year the British Travel Awards went Green teaming up with voluntary emissions reductions specialists Carbon Neutral Investments, to make the BTAs 2011 100% carbon neutral – covering all the power used at the event and the estimated travel to and from Battersea for the eleven hundred or so attending crowd.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
