Traveller contributor John Borthwick has been named Travel Writer of the Year for 2016 at the annual Australia Society of Travel Writers Awards for Excellence.
Borthwick won for three features written over the past year, two of which were published by Traveller across our print sections in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age and online at traveller.com.au.
His pieces on exploring the little-known Mergui islands of Myanmar (Read the story here) and the remote Cape Verde Islands, 500 kilometres off the west coast of Africa (Read the story here) made up two of the three features that saw Borthwick clinch the award.Traveller's writers dominated this year's awards, with 25 articles nominated across 10 categories.
Also nominated for Travel Writer of the Year were Traveller writers Craig Tansley and Kerry Van der Jagt.
Mark Daffey won Best Family Travel Story for his piece published in Traveller on road tripping through New Zealand with kids (Read the story here), while Kerry Van der Jagt won Best Australian Story for her Traveller piece on swimming with dolphins at Port Stephens. (Read the story here)
Lee Atkinson won Best Adventure Story for her feature on driving across the Simpson desert (Read the story here), while Tim Richards won Best International Feature under 1000 words for his look back at a pre-war Syria and its loss as a great tourist destination (Read the story here)
Craig Tansley won Best Cruise Story for his Traveller piece on swimming with sharks and more on a sea journey through the Maldives (Read the story here).
The Australian Society of Travel Writer's Awards for Excellence have been running for 23 years.
This year's event was held in Cape Town, South Africa, with more than 70 writers and travel media professionals travelling to the awards.
"The ASTW members represent the leading writers, editors, publishers, content creators and public relations professionals of the Australian travel industry. Over 300 entries were received across the 17 Award categories with an exceptional calibre of entrants," said ASTW President Danielle Lancaster.
Craig Platt travelled to South Africa with assistance from South Africa Tourism.
