The British Travel Awards took place last night in an event set out reward the very best of Britain’s travel companies. The awards were voted for by both the travel trade and consumers and presented at a glittering gala dinner as part of the official closing celebration of the World Travel Market and winners included Virgin Holidays, Thomson Holidays, First Choice Holidays and Monarch.
In a surprise announcement, Monarch was voted Europe’s best airline, finishing ahead of rivals such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France, whilst Monarch’s sister company Avro won the award for best seat-only company. Virgin Holidays, part of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group scooped four prestigious awards including Tour operator of the year whilst Virgin Atlantic picked up airline of the year, best airline customer service and favourite long haul scheduled airline.
Thomas Cook, who this year merged with MyTravel, won the award favourite high street travel agency, whilst in the ‘online world’ Lastminute.com won favourite online travel agency. British Airways, despite missing out on the best European airline award, won three awards with best economy airline, best business airline and best scheduled airline to Europe. Other airlines to go home happy last night included Thomsonfly, winner of favourite leisure airline and EasyJet, who beat cheap flights rival Ryanair to scoop the award for favourite low cost airline
Thomson Holidays and First Choice Holidays, who this year merged, were not left out of the celebrations as Thomson picked up the award for favourite large package holiday company, whilst First Choice underlined their ‘green’ credentials by winning awards for both most environmentally-friendly airline and most environmentally-friendly large operator.
Barcelona was voted favourite city break destination and Inghams was voted the best ski holiday and snowboard operator. The awards were announced at a ceremony in London with a total of 108 winners and 40 awards presented on stage.
