The British Travel Industry Hall of Fame welcomed four new members at its annual awards dinner on Monday night.
The four were Thomas Cook group chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa; Whitbread chief executive Alan Parker; Joseph Gaggero, GB Airways president and chairman of the Bland Group; and Travel Weekly’s very own managing director Trevor Harding, who admitted to being “speechless”.
But Harding was not alone in his reaction. Fontenla-Novoa admitted that his initial thought was “what the heck am I doing here?”
Gaggero said: “It means so much after 60 years in the travel business to be recognised in such a way and is a superb climax to my career.”
Other winners on the night were MyTravel chief executive Peter McHugh, who scooped the Business Achievement Award, and Eurostar’s head of UK sales, Jason Geall, who won Alpha Forum’s 2007 Young Manager of the Year.
Jason Fry, the managing director of Sheffield-based AlphaRooms and Vacenza, won the Alpha Forum 2007 Young Entrepreneur of the Year award
Fry, 35, whose Sheffield-based business has a projected turnover of £45 million for 2007, said: “This has been my dream.
“The online travel industry has come a long way since I first started out and our success has come from keeping one step ahead of technology and the competition.”
The winners received their accolades at the Travel Hall of Fame dinner at London’s Savoy Hotel.
- Read Juliet Dennis’s profile of the four new hall of fame members