London, 8 November 2010 The new Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece, has won the British Guild of Travel Writers’ Globe Award 2010 for the best new large-scale project anywhere in the world.

The news was announced at the British Guild of Travel Writers’ 50th Anniversary Gala Awards Dinner at the newly renovated iconic London hotel, The Savoy, (Nov 7), on the eve of the World Travel Market.

It was presented by Guild Chair Melissa Shales to the Greek Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Mr George Nikitiadis.

The museum was nominated by one of Britain’s most well-respected travel journalists, Guild member, Nigel Tisdall, who said: "We can now view the treasures of the Acropolis even better than the ancient Greeks could."

Industry roll of honour

The prestigious Guild Tourism Awards, nominated by Guild members, are given to the world’s best new tourism initiatives.

There are three categories.

• The Globe award (more than 250,000 visitors a year) was won by the Acropolis Museum.
   
• The Overseas Tourism Project award was won by the Haida Heritage Centre, British Columbia, which celebrates the rare tribal culture of the Queen Charlotte Islands. “Visitors, welcomed as 'honoured guests', are invited to watch and talk to current artists about their work, their life and culture. This is no Disney experience,” said nominator Kathy Arnold.
   
• The UK Tourism Project award was won by Blists Hill Victorian Town, a recreated Victorian town at Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. “By the time you enter the town, you're immersed in the era,” said nominator Gillian Thornton. “Blists Hill has undergone a £12 million facelift to reposition it at the forefront of heritage education.”

(For runners-up, see below)

Bringing the travel world together

The dinner was attended by more than 400 guests including ministers of tourism from countries all over the world, national tourist office representatives, top travel PRs and Britain’s leading travel journalists, photographers and broadcasters.

The prestigious event, sponsored by the Belgian Tourist Office, Brussels & Wallonia, is the UK’s premier occasion for the travel industry to recognise excellence for the world’s newest tourism projects.

This year’s ceremony was a landmark one and the Guild toasted its 50th anniversary in style with Belgian champagne. All guests received a copy of the Guild’s newly published book, We Were There, a 50-year history of the British travel and tourism industry.

The event’s sponsors, the Belgian Tourist Office, brought extra showbiz glamour to the evening. In a surprise announcement, the Brussels Region Tourism Minister, Christos Doulkéridis, invited British actor David Suchet, (famed for his role as Agatha Christie’s great detective Hercule Poirot), onto the stage and presented him with the first of his nation’s ‘Honorary Famous Belgian Awards’.

The Guild also marked its birthday by launching a ‘time travel capsule’ of a red Samsonite suitcase. This, along with its contents, will be sealed into the Guild’s archives until 2060.

It includes, on long loan, a smart phone from Vodafone, to whom it will be returned in 50 years…

Said Chairman Melissa Shales: “We wanted to leave something for the centenary celebrations, so we’ve put together a selection of items about the Guild, the travel industry and the world of travel in 2010 … We’ve also written a letter to the Guild committee of 2060 and added a birthday present, a birthday card and a postdated cheque for £100.”

BGTW Tourism Awards Full Results

Globe category (more than 250,000 visitors a year)
Winner: the New Acropolis Museum, Athens (www.newacropolismuseum.gr/eng) – Greece’s highly modern landmark museum that opened in 2009. Runners-up: the newly renovated Ulster Museum, Northern Island’s busiest visitor attraction; and Siam Park, Tenerife’s spectacular waterpark that opened in 2008.

Overseas Tourism Project category
Winner: Haida Heritage Centre, British Columbia, celebrating rare tribal culture. Runners-up: Bluff Cove Museum, Falklands, (a living museum about the pioneering life of the Islanders; Ocean Dreams Factory, Tenerife, which, uniquely, enables visitors over 12 to dive in tandem with an instructor.

UK Tourism Project category
Winner: Blists Hill Victorian Town, a recreated Victorian town at Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. Runners-up: The Galleries of Modern London, £20 million redevelopment telling the story of London; the re-launched Jewish Museum in London which celebrates Jewish life and its cultural diversity.

(For further details, visit http://www.bgtw.org/tourism-awards-winners-2010.html)

The British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW, established 1960) is the premier professional association for bonafide journalists, editors, photographers, and radio and film broadcasters working in the travel field from Britain.

For more information or review copy of We Were There, contact Sarah Monaghan, BGTW Press & PR Co-ordinator at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or t. 01273 455798/m. 07905 916610.