Journalist receives top award for travel writing

Journalist receives top award for travel writing

27 January 2016

A FORMER Bryansford man has won another prestigious journalism award.

Mal Rogers has been named Northern Ireland Travel Extra Travel Journalist of the Year.

Mal, who was brought up in Tollymore Forest and attended Down High School and Queen’s University, was given his award in Dublin on Friday. 

The award was for a body of his work appearing in the Irish Times. An article of his also appeared in the Down Recorder last year.

A statement from Travel Extra said the award winners were chosen by a distinguished panel of senior Irish journalists. “This year saw a huge increase in the number of submissions from previous years, displaying the creativity and continuing innovation of travel and tourism journalism in Ireland,” a spokesman said.

The winners, each for different holidaying categories, were announced at a dinner in Thomas Prior House, Ballsbridge which, attended by the Irish travel and tourism writers and broadcasters. The event was sponsored by the Spanish Tourist Board. In his speech the Spanish ambassador praised the high standards of Irish travel journalism.

Mal has won several awards — in 2014 and 2013 he won the Travel Writer of the year award for Spain. In 2009 he was nominated as one of the top 50 travel writers in the UK by the Press Gazette, while the previous year his Guide to the North of Ireland (Crimson Press) won the Guide Book of the Year Award from the British Guild of Travel Writers.

The Swedish Embassy in London also honoured Mal’s writing in 2004, praising his insights into travel in Scandinavia

Mal has written extensively for Tourism Ireland, and continues to contribute to the body.

He will continue to write illuminating travel pieces for the Irish Post during the coming year.