Globe Travel Awards 2026 special winners revealed

Lynn Narraway, Seabourn vice-president for the UK and EMEA, has been presented with the 2026 Travel Weekly Globe Travel Award for Outstanding Achievement.

 

Narraway earned the accolade in recognition of her career spanning four decades, over which time she has held senior roles across a range of sectors including cruise, aviation and tour operating.

 

Before joining Seabourn in 2011, Narraway ran the Holland America Line and Carnival Cruise Line UK business and prior to joining the cruise sector worked for American Airlines, British Airways Holidays and Kuoni.

 

Speaking after collecting her award, Narraway said: "It feels unbelievable to win this award. I’m still shaking.

 

"I always wanted to be in travel right though university. It took me a lot of applications to get into it but when I finally managed it there was nowhere else I wanted to be. I then found my true passion in cruise and I’ve had fantastic teams throughout my career. The team at Seabourn are amazing and this award is as much for them as for me.

 

"My husband and two daughters are here and have known about this since before Christmas but kept it a secret. To have them watching from the balcony was just amazing and I feel very honoured.

 

I want to say thank you to everyone I’ve ever worked with, to all our travel partners and especially to our team at Seabourn."

 

 

Other special awards presented on the night included the Employer of the Year Awards won by Travelsphere and Just You, while the Unsung Hero Award was won by G Adventures’ Brian Young,

 

Ocean Florida won the Travel for All Award for the third year running and the Sustainable Future Award was won by Eurostar,

 

Travelsphere & Just You managing director Adam Kemp, said: "I definitely didn’t expect this. As the judges said, we punch well above our weight. We’re not the biggest but we’re one of the best brands in travel and it’s amazing to be recognised for our business business culture, which we spend a lot of time on.

 

"The team are very involved in everything we do. They understand our strategic direction and we talk to them a lot about our results, and I think that came across in our interview with the judges. We have a really strong mission around changing people’s lives through travel and that resonates with our employees.

 

"I think the judges also liked our rewards and recognition activities. We have a value champions award and our top employees get to go on a tour to experience community tourism first-hand.

 

"We live and breath our culture every day and I hope we were awarded this not just for one or two things, but for what we do day in, day out."

 

 

The Unsung Hero Award was won by G Adventures’ Brian Young, who was recognised for his “unwavering belief in travel’s power to change lives” and for his work in “championing responsible tourism and supporting global communities and those most in need in our own industry”.

 

Young said: “I only put it together right at the end. We’ve done four treks now so when they talked about community and bringing people from the travel industry together, it started to click. I’m really shocked. 

 

"This award is about everybody who has participated in our G for Good treks. It’s for all the effort people have put in to raising that money. This goes to them as a thank you for supporting us.

"It’s important to me because I believe in what we do. I believe in the power travel has to change people’s lives.

"I’ve been in the travel industry my whole life and this is my way of giving back to the industry through Abta Lifeline, to help people when they need it the most."

 

Ocean Florida won the Travel for All Award for the third year running, managing director for trade sales Matt Rains said: "Winning this award today feels as good as the first and second times we won. I am proud we started the lead on this and it is great to see we have shaped things for the future.

 

"We have not taken this for granted and we have improved the programme and want to make it was easy as possible for customers and agents so everyone can go on holiday. We want to distribute the programme as far as we can. That is why we have been so strong to make it so usable for travel agents and that is one of the reasons for our success.

 

"We want more people to get the holidays they want and deserve. I am going to celebrate the win tonight with a bit of a dance and text the team, but most importantly we are going to build on this to serve all destinations like we serve the US.

 

Stephen Roby of Sustainable Future winner Eurostar International said: “We welcomed our 400 millionth passenger yesterday and so that makes this award extra special for us. This is a huge achievement for us we are so excited to win it.

 

“We are always sparking new connections and we’ve been busy opening new routes, so we’re making sustainable travel more accessible for everyone.“

 

We saw how strong the shortlist was this year and so it’s really special to come out on top. Sustainability is in our DNA and we are always searching for ways to be greener and we work hard to do it.

 

“So to be recognised for this award really justifies all the work we do behind the scenes and will only serve to encourage us to strive for more and continue what we’re doing.”