The Independent’s travel team is celebrating a total of four wins at this year’s Travel Media Awards, held on Monday at London’s Dorchester Hotel.
Travel correspondent Simon Calder won two awards during the night: the Breaking Travel News award, and Broadcast Programme of the Year: TV, Radio, Online or Podcast.
The latter was for The Independent’s recent film on Florida, “From alligators to astronauts: go one step beyond Orlando”.
Watch here: From alligators to astronauts: go one step beyond Orlando.
On top of Simon’s coveted wins, the two top travel feature of the year awards each went to Independent writers for recent articles in the section.
Sian Lewis won Best Consumer Travel Feature of the year for her insightful and inspiring story on Finland’s ice-bathing tradition: “Taking the plunge: ice swimming and sauna rituals in Finland”.
Meanwhile, Mike MacEacheran took home the award for Sustainability Travel Feature of the Year for his curious story: “Why a troll hunting tour of Denmark is the education in sustainability you never knew you needed”.
In even more good news for The Independent, regular contributor Claire Boobbyer also took home Specialist Travel Writer of the Year, having submitted her story “Painted snails, cocoa and vegan pioneers: Exploring Baracoa, the real old Cuba” among others as evidence of her wide-ranging knowledge of the Caribbean island.
The prestigious industry awards were launched in 2015 to recognise the very best and brightest in travel media. It uses a large panel of industry experts to review hundreds of entries in order to narrow down each year’s winners.
Never one to keep still for long, Simon Calder was out on the road in Germany at the time of the event, so the awards were collected by deputy travel editor Lucy Thackray.
Helen Coffey, The Independent’s head of travel said: “It’s a real honour to see The Independent rewarded for its wide-ranging quality travel editorial, from our hard-hitting breaking news coverage and beautifully written colour features to exclusive video content promoting the hottest destinations around the globe.
“For a small team we pack a mighty punch, thanks in large part to our illustrious travel correspondent Simon Calder – one of the most trusted and recognised voices in travel journalism today – who very deservedly scooped two separate awards.
“Considering The Independent travel desk’s passionate commitment to championing greener and more responsible travel amid the climate crisis, it was also particularly heartening to receive the award for sustainability feature of the year for Mike MacEacheran’s wonderful piece on Denmark.”
Anthony Leyens, co-founder of the awards and CEO of APL Media, said: “Once again, the standard and volume of entries has been incredible, making the judges’ task even more difficult.
“The industry is now firmly in recovery and this year’s cohort of finalists and winners have undoubtedly played a major role in getting us there.”
