We’re delighted to have been voted Best Tour Operator in Wanderlust magazine’s annual travel awards. The awards were announced today at the Destinations show at Earls Court. There’s a real buzz of excitement around the office – this is one of the top awards in travel as it’s voted for by readers of the magazine, rather than a panel, ie.real travellers.
It’s exhibition season at the moment with ‘Destinations’ at Earls Court this weekend and the NEC at the end of February. This year we’ve gone for a purpose built stand – it’s been something of a dilemma, whether to go for the DIY option or employ a company to do the design which may look a bit a corporate. Well, if you go to the show, do let me have some feedback. The exhibitions are always a great way to chat through ideas and meet up with clients old and new, there are however, a few unwritten (until now) golden rules about exhibiting:
I was recently chatting to Joe, one of our South India specialists, about this amazing region of India and what he loves about it. Afterwards, he emailed me this article for the Audley blog which I thought I would share with you:
“The South of India is best described as the steamy, tropical Hindu heartland of the Subcontinent, a place so far removed from the soaring mountain peaks and sun-blasted deserts of the North that you could be forgiven for thinking you had been transported to another planet.
Life is slower and gentler in the South, the sea-kissed coastline, fertile plains, and undulating tea and spice plantations providing the perfect back-drop.
After the success of the first local client evening that we had at the Oxford Asmolean museum back on a rainy November night, I am really looking forward to the next one in a few weeks time on the 13th February. The exhibition itself is fascinating but for me the best thing about these evenings is the chance to talk to not only the curator of the world’s oldest (or so they claim!) museum, but also to Weimin He, the man who was commissioned by the museum to travel through China in order to put the collection together. Quite a task that he undertook, and a remarkable journey. I understand that a fair few people are booked onto the next evening already, so look forward to seeing you there. Anyone not able to make it should have a look at the museum’s website that has a good intro to the exhibition.
Last week Ruth, one of our Africa Regional Managers, and I flew to Windhoek for meetings with our ground agents. We flew down overnight on a Sunday night and back overnight on the Thursday night. The time in Windhoek was great, but pretty tiring with back to back meetings for four days. Ruth somehow managed to get food poisoning on the Wednesday. So by the time we reached Windhoek airport on the Thursday night for our flight home we were both pretty strung out and tired. We looked forward to a quiet 10 hours flying gently back above Africa to the UK. Imagine our delight on getting to the check-in desk to find the plane was taken a diversion – via Accra in Ghana.
A few of us from the office went to see a play called The Lady of Burma in Oxford last week. It was a one-woman show portraying Aung San Suu Kyi in prison in Burma reflecting on her life. It was a very moving performance, and brought to life much of what I have read about in the past.
Afterwards, a Burmese exile, now living in the UK and there representing the Burma Campaign, took questions from the audience. Of course someone asked the question about whether people should travel to Burma.
Yippee! Just heard that we’ve been shortlisted for “Best Website” again at the annual Wanderlust Travel Awards. The ceremony is taking place at the Destinations Travel Show, Earl’s Court, London. The ceremony is on Thursday 31st January at 11.45am at the World Entertainment Stage.
If you are visiting the Destination Travel Show this year, why not pop along and give us your support?
Delighted by the results in the Daily Telegraph and responsibletravel.com survey at the weekend where Audley came out top in the luxury tour operator sector. Good to see that all the responsible travel practises that we are putting in place are being recognised. We can’t really be pigeon-holed as just a luxury tour operator although we undoubtedly offer luxury trips. You can read more about our responsible travel on the main Audley website and within all the trip ideas.
There are thousands (millions?) of personal travel websites out there, some wonderful, some not so. We were sent an office copy of travel writer, Fiona Dunlop’s new book Medina Kitchen before Christmas and I’ve meaning to have a look at her website. Just did so – what a great writer (and photographer) and someone who really loves travelling. Great blog as well. Here’s the link www.fionadunlop.com
Travel writer John Gimlette travelled with us to Libya over the Xmas and New Year. Just emailed to say he’d had a fantastic trip and how the much the Libyan people loved children – he took along his 3 year old daughter. Looking forward to seeing the article.
UPDATE: John Gimlette’s article is now published here.
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