SATW FOUNDATION
LOWELL THOMAS TRAVEL JOURNALISM COMPETITION
29 Years of Rewarding Journalists for Outstanding Work in the Field
 

                                                     2011 SATW Foundation
                               Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award Winners

RICK STEVES, BUDGET TRAVEL MAGAZINE WIN TOP
SATW FOUNDATION LOWELL THOMAS CONTEST HONORS 

Rick Steves, Journalist of the Year in the 2011 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition
Rick Steves, one of America’s best-known travelers as a guidebook writer, blogger, twitterer and TV/radio host, is the Journalist of the Year in the 2011 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.
 
Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle win top honors as the best travel publications in North America.
 
National Geographic Traveler wins five awards, including best travel website and best cultural tourism article. Outside magazine also wins five awards, including best adventure travel and best investigative stories.
 
This is the 27th year of the Lowell Thomas competition, overseen by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. The awards, recognized as the most prestigious in travel journalism, were announced at the annual conference of the Society of American Travel Writers, the premier professional organization of travel journalists and communicators. 
 
See the full story about this year’s results.
 
Individual Award Winners
Rick Steves connects with a wide audience today, sharing his travel adventures and insight in all forms of media from print, radio and television to blogs and tweets. His expert, diverse portfolio of work the past year earns him the Grand Award and title of 2011 Travel Journalist of the Year in the SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.
 
Steves also takes gold awards for his popular travel blog and “Travel With Rick Steves” broadcasts on public radio as well as a bronze for “Rick Steves’ Europe — Season Six” on American Public Television.  
 
“The strength of Steves’ writing is his embrace of diversity, the range of topics and everyday candor,” the judges said.
 
Silver Grand Award winner is Andrew McCarthy, freelance actor, writer and director, who won the gold in this category in 2010 and was a featured speaker at the SATW convention this year. Winning bronze is freelance writer Kate Siber.
 
In Special Packages/Projects, which recognizes in-depth coverage of a topic and emphasizes use of multiple, interactive media, the gold goes to Christopher Reynolds for “Southern California Close-Ups” and the silver to Mark Boster for “Yosemite in Four Seasons,” both in the Los Angeles Times.   
 
Check out the complete list of winners in 24 categories.
 
What the Judges Said
The competition, for work from spring 2010 to spring 2011, drew 1,209 entries. Judges are the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
 
“I was struck by the quality of the entries,” said judge Val Lauder, who has taught feature writing at North Carolina for 31 years. She said the winning entry in the foreign travel article category — Peter Gwin’s story from Timbuktu in National Geographic — was “haunting.”
 
In naming the Los Angeles Times the best Travel section in its circulation category, the judges said, “Light, tight, bright. The Times hits all the chords: imagination, strong narrative writing, humor, customer service.” The San Francisco Chronicle wins for smaller newspapers, with the judges saying, “Spud Hilton’s sections always are an adventure.”
 
Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel takes top honors in travel magazines. “From cover to story, Budget Travel speaks to its readers, intrigues them… it’s extremely appealing and easy to read.”  
 
See the judges’ comments for all winners. 
 
The Prizes for Winners
The SATW Foundation distributes nearly $20,000 in prize money to individual winners. The Grand Award earns the gold winner $1,500, the silver winner $750 and the bronze place $500. In individual categories, first-place gold winners each receive $500, with $250 going to silver and $150 to bronze winners. The categories for Best Newspaper Travel Sections, Best Magazines, Best Online Travel Journalism Sites and Best Travel Packages/Projects are not given monetary awards.
 
“We want to thank this year’s underwriters — the Tourist Office for Flanders - Brussels and Travel Guard — for their support in recognizing and rewarding excellence in travel journalism,” said David Molyneaux, SATW Foundation president. “Their generosity helps make our prizes possible.”

The awards are named for Lowell Thomas, acclaimed broadcast journalist, prolific author and world explorer during five decades in travel journalism.

BELOW: Photos of some of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism winners attending the SATW Awards luncheon in Wellington, New Zealand (Photos courtesy of Lee Foster.)

ABOVE: SATW Foundation president, David Molyneaux presents Andrew McCarthy with his Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award.

BELOW: Andrew McCarthy accepts Lowell Thomas award at SATW Awards Luncheon.

 ABOVE:
Among those recognized for SATW Foundation Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards are, left to right, SATW Foundation Trustee John Macdonald, Al Bonowitz, SATW Foundation President David Molyneaux, Veronica Stoddart, Carolyn Spencer Brown, Andrew McCarthy.
BELOW:
Left to Right:  Melanie McManus, David Molyneaux, April Orcutt, Spud Hilton, Andrew McCarthy

 

SATW Foundation secretary Liliane Opsomer stopped over in Los Angeles, California on her way back from New Zealand to personally present some of the Lowell Thomas awards at a dinner hosted by Flanders-Brussels.  To the right is a picture from the event. 

 

Front, left: Elizabeth Harryman, Westways
Behind her: Mark Boster, LA Times
Behind him: Christopher Reynolds, LA Times
Back Center: Liliane Opsomer
Laura Hubber, Reporter for BBC World Service accepting on behalf of Richard Bangs
Brad Johnson (hiding because of his food critic work.)
Front right: Catharine Hamm, LA Times.

Also, at a Flanders media event in December 2011, Liliane will recognize some New York metropolitan area winners.