Wider participation urged in travel journalism award

Although the Institute of Maltese Journalists was satisfied with the number of participants in the travel journalism category of the Malta Journalism Awards, it wished to see more journalists participate in this category, Malcolm J. Naudi, institute chairman said.

Travel journalism was an important source of information and education both for leisure and business travellers, he said during the presentation of the awards to journalists earlier this week.

The Travel Journalism category, a new award, is sponsored by Emirates Airline.

Free-lance writer Corinne Vella won the category and was presented with the award by Paul Fleri Soler, Emirates' Malta district manager.

Apart from the trophy and Lm150 in prize money, Ms Vella also won two Emirates return business tickets to Dubai and three nights in a five-star hotel.

Journalists Sarah Puntan Galea and Alvin Scicluna placed second and third respectively.

The Emirates initiative to sponsor this new travel journalism category followed a substantial increase in travel coverage by the Maltese media and brought to eight the number of categories in the 14th edition of Malta's national journalistic competition.

Mr Fleri Soler said participation in the new award was an encouraging start and he also hoped that more journalists would participate in the next edition.

Emirates was proud to be associated with the Malta Journalism Awards, he said.