THE BRITISH Guild of Travel Writers’ annual awards dinner, the glittering event that kicks off World Travel Market, proved to be a real bonanza for one of its sponsors.
The Federation of Small Businesses in Gibraltar, which contributed £1,500 to the dinner, showed just how to get maximum value for money when supporting an event.
Chairman Marie-Lou Guerrero herself made sure it was money well spent by entering a grand raffle of fabulous prizes donated by the sponsors.
One of her raffle tickets was pulled out of the hat for a week for two in Jordan and a beaming Guerrero stepped up to have her picture taken receiving the prize.
Would she, as a sponsor, hand it back for someone else to win?Would she heck.
A few more prizes and then we moved on to two tickets to Chicago, kindly donated by Virgin Atlantic.
Again, one of Guerrero’s tickets was plucked out. Surely the sponsor would let someone else have the chance to win a holiday to the windy city?After all, she already had a holiday in Jordan in the bag.
But no, up stepped Guerrero to claim the prize again.
“I’ve never won anything before,” said Guerrero. “I think I’ll be playing the national lottery on Saturday.”
Even if the prizes weren’t spread quite as widely among guests as they might have been, at least Guerrero’s purchase of raffle tickets helped the BGTW raise £5,000 for the Time2Care charity.
And that was generously matched by Sir Freddie Laker, who was given a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to tourism.