GTTP Travel Writing Competition
Being able to communicate well in writing is important in any career in today’s global economy.
The essay competition reinforces the GTTP’s emphasis on encouraging research and communications skills. The theme of the essay competition is "Secret Trails of My Country," said Ian Wheeler chairman of the Global Travel & Tourism Partnership.
"The idea is to encourage the writing skills of young people who we hope to attract to our industry and also to get them to see what visitors might find interesting in their communities," said Wheeler, who is vice president, marketing and distribution, for Madrid-based Amadeus S.A., a major provider of IT-based services to the Travel & Tourism industry and its customers.
Winner of US$500 in the international senior category was Beth Nyambura Nyaga, a student at the Makini Academy of Nairobi, Kenya, the latest country to join the GTTP. Beth wrote about the town of Gaturi and the shrine of “Makurwe Wa Nyagathanga.”
The shrine is “said to be the first settlement of Gikuyu and Mumbi, the forebears of the Agikuyu," wrote the student. In English the word “Agikuyu” is spelled “Kikuyu,” one of Kenya’s major ethnic groups. Click here to download a pdf of her essay.
National senior winners of US$300 in the 2009 competition were:
--- Sienna Chan Tsz-kwan, of Hong Kong, for her essay “Ma On Shan Village: A Testimony To HK’s Old Mining History and Daunting Greenery,” which describes what remains of an abandoned iron mine;
--- Henry Roberts of Carlow, Ireland, for his essay, “The Forgotten Beauty of Yeats Country,” about Ireland’s Lake District and its association with the poet W.B. Yeats;
--- Jodi-Ann Barnes, of Clarendon, Jamaica, wrote about the “God Well” in the Canoe Valley, a natural sink hole said to be 300 feet (91 meters) deep;
--- Anastassia Vavilova, of Moscow, Russia, wrote about the Slovensky springs, also called The Springs of the Twelve Apostles, known for their health-promoting qualities, near the ancient village of Izborsk in Western Russia;
--- Schani Moore of Klerksdorp, South Africa, wrote about a long cross-country family trip to see the whales off the seaside town of Hermanus;
--- Charlotte Watterson, of Buckley in North Wales in the United Kingdom, wrote about her ancient hometown, its heritage and the annual Buckley Jubilee celebration.
National junior winners of US$300 were Guilherme Fraga Costa of San Jose dos Campos of Sao Paulo State in Brazil, who told readers about a family trip to Ribeirao Grande to see where his father’s cousins, uncles and aunts used to live; and Valeria Yaichikova told readers about her village of Krutsy, in Western Russia, with its ponds, forests and an old manor house.
The essays were judged on the basis of creativity, relevance to the theme, relevance of photos to the text, grammar, originality and style.
