Friday Fix – 26th Sept

Posted on in Announcements by Sarah Rodrigues

Happy Friday, everyone …

Here’s hoping you’ve all had a great week.

Further to last week’s note about concerns over the ITAs and the shortlisted status of Edinburgh’s Palestine Museum and Cultural Centre, this issue was discussed at yesterday’s Board meeting. A decision has been reached and will be communicated in a standalone email.

On another note, while I always appreciate members emailing me with news for these Friday Fixes, inboxes get quite busy and things can be overlooked. To make it easier for me to find your news, please could you name such emails ‘Friday Fix DDMM’ – for example, Friday Fix 2609. Thanks a million!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend – October, here we come.

Take care,

Sarah

Gala Award Dinner Tickets

We’ve already sold half of the Gala Awards tickets. If you haven’t secured yours yet, please order through this link using the password 202565 to access the discounted members’ tickets.

Please note that while the £95 member tickets will remain on sale until sold out, the £65 reduced ticket option will only be available to members until Tuesday, 7th October. Thank you to everyone who has engaged with our sponsors who help fund the event; please do keep doing so on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn.

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Better World Symposium/Post-Christmas Party 19th January 2026: Save The Date / Call For Speakers

Please save the date for the Better World Symposium and Guild’s post-Christmas Party on Monday, 19th January 2026, at the London Canal Museum. Further details and tickets (complimentary for members) will be released in a few weeks.

We are still seeking a couple more Guild members to either speak on panels or serve as moderators. At this stage, while finalising the schedule, the exact topics are still to be confirmed (all will be regarding sustainability, ethics, and responsibility linked with travel media). If you have an idea or are interested in being a moderator, please contact daniel.clarke@bgtw.org (Daniel is recovering from surgery, so there may be some slight delays in response).

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Oxford Visit

BGTW’s visit to Oxford on Monday, 27 October will start at 3pm and the new-ish luxury hotel, The Store, has reserved its private dining room for us to enjoy coffee, tea and cake. In addition to our immersion into the city’s unexpected treasures thanks to the Oxford Guild of Tour Guides, we’ll be joined by some colourful characters for added quirkiness, including the blogger from The Oxford Sausage who lives in a historic sausagemaker’s house and writes about the weird and wonderful in Oxford. Please RSVP to Alicia Sheber at alicia.sheber@bgtw.org

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Sri Lanka event last night

Many thanks to Alicia Sheber for her hard work in putting together the event at the Sri Lankan High Commission last night. Around 30 Guild members were in attendance and an enjoyable night was had by all.

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BGTW Anthology Update for Contributors

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the BGTW’s 65th Anniversary Anthology. We’re delighted to say it’s now on its way to the printers and will be released on 4 November after the Gala Dinner – it’s already available for pre-order on Bradt’s website.

Daniel will be sending around an email to all 77 contributors (thank you for so much interest in being involved) next week regarding contributors’ copies and some other details. Please keep an eye on your inbox, as this is a time-sensitive email, due to the logistics of shipping, etc.

We’d also like to say thank you to Pure Michigan and Amelia Island, Florida, for their sponsorship and for helping to make this project a reality.

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Algarve BGTW Trips: November 6th-10th

The first of two BGTW groups headed to the Algarve last week for a culinary itinerary, and a great time was had by all. Thank you to Algarve Tourism for hosting.

A second, nature and walking themed trip is now confirmed for 6-10 November for up to 9 BGTW Members. We will soon have the draft itinerary available; in the meantime, you can find the currently available information and express your interest in securing a spot on this form. If you have already completed the form, your interests/pitches will be turned in to the hosts next Monday, and we will get in touch with you directly with an update as soon as possible.

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Member achievements

Mary Novakovich was awarded ANTOR Travel Writer of the Year this week – huge congratulations, Mary!

Last week, we listed the members who are TravelMedia Awards finalists, but omitted Intrepid Times, which has member Nathan James Thomas as its editor. The publication is a finalist in the Customer Content of the Year category, and its assistant editor, Thom Brown, has been shortlisted for Emerging Writer of the Year. Congratulations!

Finally, the Travel Connection Group TravYule finalists were announced this week: congratulations and best of luck to Kirsten Henton (Best Mentor), Simon Willmore (Exceptional Team Player) and Sarah Rodrigues (Freelance Journalist of the Year).

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Anthology Awards

Many thanks to member Alastair McKenzie for bringing this opportunity to our attention: entries for the Anthology Awards are now open, closing on November 30th. All details can be found here.

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Judges needed

SATW, the Society of American Travel Writers, is looking for judges for its ‘SATW Canadian Chapter 2025 Awards’. The awards scheme celebrates excellence in travel journalism.

Kathy Buckworth, the awards chair, tells us that there are five categories where judges are needed:

Best Culinary Story – feature with a food focus, either in origin, taste, presentation, or all three.
Best Service Story – feature describing a service/practical advice aspect of travel (i.e. Baby’s First Plane Ride)
Best Photography, People/Person
Best Photography, Place
Best Virtual Storytelling – story presented in video format either on television or video, including social media
Judges will receive entries on 15 January 2026 with results due back by 1 March. The winners will be announced on 26 March. Kathy says SATW typically gets between 20 and 30 entries for each category. Gold, Silver and Bronze are awarded in each category and score sheets are provided.

If you’re interested in supporting our friends at SATW (the SATW provides judges for our own Members’ Excellence Awards) then please email Kathy at kbuckworth@rogers.com

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Sarah Rodrigues
By: Sarah Rodrigues Freelance Travel Writer