NEWS GLOBE TRAVEL AWARDS 2019 Special awards: Recipients tell Lee Hayhurst what it means to walk off with a Globe


Turner-Davis is a true Unsung Hero


PENNY AKAM UNSUNG HERO AWARD ALEXANDRA TURNER-DAVIS


The emotion that spilled out from the recipient of this year’s Penny Akam Unsung Hero Award were understandable given what she has gone through in her short life. In 2014, Alexandra Turner-


Davis, then just 15 years old, was told she had only months to live after being diagnosed with a rare form of throat cancer. Due to the aggressive nature of the disease, she had to be given adult chemotherapy treatment. She is now in remission and, at 19, just a year away from being declared totally cured. “I’m just so emotional,” the


Hays Travel agent said. “I could so easily have


not been here tonight.” Turner-Davis’s story is


rearale. s well as fighting the disease, she has excelled in her career – winning awards and eing ays ofiial apprentice ambassador – and worked hard to help others. She raised more than £50,000


for the Teenage Cancer Trust during her treatment and set up her own charity, Alex’s Angels Foundation, to support children, young people and their families diagnosed with cancer. Turner-Davis, who left school


with two GCSEs and a BTEC, said she was hugely grateful for the support she has had from Hays Travel since joining its apprenticeship scheme. “I absolutely love everything


to do with travel. My mam used to be cabin crew so I’ve always been around this industry. “I love my job and have such passion. John [Hays] and the company have been brilliant. I’m so grateful to have found such a good company to work for and one that believes in me.” The Penny Akam award


was created in 2010 to commemorate the life of the former organiser of the Globes after she died of cancer in 2008. Turner-Davis, who works at


Hays' Jarrow branch in Tyne and Wear, added: “I was just so emotional, happy and grateful. My mam and colleagues will be over the moon.”


From left: Andy Owen Jones, bd4travel; Paul Broughton, of award sponsor


Travelport; and Stuart Parish, Travel Weekly


Innovation winner: UK is embracing AI


INNOVATION IN TRAVEL AWARD BD4TRAVEL


Europe is ahead of the US in terms of bringing advances in artifiial intelligene to trael according to this year’s Globe Travel Awards Innovation in Travel winner.


Speaking after picking up the


sought-after gong, Andy Owen Jones, founder and chief executive of bd4travel, said: “The UK is starting to embrace this. We are talking to a lot of big players in the UK market. “We don’t know what’s going


to happen with Brexit, but we are now seeing the implementation of this technology. People are starting to think with a digital mindset. “I think Europe is ahead of the


states, and we want to create more European champions to compete with the US players. “The way you do that is by


Alexandra Turner-Davis with Lucy Huxley (left) and Angela Day of award


sponsor Affordable Car Hire 18travelweekly.co.uk24 January 2019


focusing more on the customer. What winning this award tells me is that people are starting to do that.” Judges said bd4travel stood out for how it had been able to take


“We are seeing the implementation of this technology. People are starting to think with a digital mindset”


previously untested technology and apply it in a client’s business with a clear impact on its bottom line. Bd4travel provides shopping personalisation technology pow- ered by machine learning to gener- ate relevant recommendations. It was acquired by dnata Travel


last year and won the Globe award for its work with fellow dnata- owned brand Travel Republic. Owen Jones said: “I’m delighted


to be a part of this evening, thank you very much. I also have to thank Iain Andrew [dnata divisional senior vice-president] and dnata for believing in us. “This is the first thing we have


done under its ownership. “We are still a small company punching above our weight but with the backing of dnata we can invest. 2018 was a great year and 2019 is going to be even better.”


PICTURES: STEVE DUNLOP


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