BRITISH GUILD OF TRAVEL WRITERS MEMBERS WIN SEVEN TOP AWARDS

Seven members of the British Guild of Travel Writers have won top travel writing awards for recent articles and a book on destinations as varied as the USA, Tenerife, Brazil and Peru.

Martin Symington and Roger St Pierre received awards in London on 7 July from the UK's Visit USA Association. Martin was consumer press winner for his Wanderlust article on travelling across America on Amtrak train and Roger was highly commended for a feature in Selling Long Haul on Where the West Was Won.

Mary Moore Mason, editor of the UK's Essentially America magazine, was earlier presented with the US Travel Association's $1,000 prize for From Oz to Oklahoma, which was voted Best US Travel Destination article written worldwide. Mary, whose winning article covered her sometimes offbeat experiences travelling through Kansas and Oklahoma, beat off competition from 150 other international travel writers. She received the award at the association's annual Pow Wow travel industry conference, held in San Francisco and attended by 5,000 delegates.

Mike Unwin was proclaimed Travel Writer of the Year by the Latin American Travel Association (LATA) for his piece on Brazil in The Independent, and both Adele Evans and Roger Thomas were honoured by Tenerife Tourism – the former for her piece in The Lady on Agatha Christie's association with the island and Roger for his piece in both The Independent's print and online editions on biking up Tenerife's Mount Teide.

But the most lucrative prize – the £10,000 Wales Book of the Year award – went to new Guild member John A Harrison for Cloud Road: A Journey Through the Inca Heartland. It was presented in Cardiff on 7 July by Literature Wales in conjunction with the Arts Council of Wales, the Welsh Books Council and the Welsh Government.

Now in its 51st year, the British Guild of Travel Writers is an association of 275 top professional travel writers, editors, photographers and broadcasters.

For further information:
Paul Thomas
PR spokesman
The British Guild of Travel Writers
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01603 738582

Contact details for the award winners:
Martin Symington: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 01249 701157
Roger St Pierre: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 01371 850238
Mary Moore Mason: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 020 7243 6954
Mike Unwin: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 01273 686205
Adele Evans: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 01425 470946
Roger Thomas: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 01873 811186
John Harrison: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 020 7723 9671

13 July 2011