TUI UK & Ireland's annual Gold Awards were hosted last night, 6th November, at Banqueting House, London. Opened by Johan Lundgren, TUI Travel PLC's Deputy Chief Executive and David Burling, TUI UK & Ireland's Managing Director, the awards rewarded the achievements of Thomson and First Choice hoteliers from around the world.

Eighteen Overall Gold Awards were up for grabs from TUI UK and the winning hotels were picked based on their feedback scores from Customer Satisfaction Questionnaires (CSQs), completed by Thomson and First Choice holidaymakers this summer.

The first award of the night was the Gold Award for Supplier Sustainability, which was presented by Johan Lundgren, with the award going to Protur Biomar Gran Hotel & Spa in Majorca. Cati Andreu from Protur Biomar was there to pick up the award. The sustainability initiatives of hoteliers is a key part of TUI UK & Ireland's 20 Holidays Forever commitments to sustainable tourism, so it was fitting that this was the first award of the night.

There were also Gold Awards for TUI's unique and exclusive hotel concept range. For Thomson, Sensatori Resort Crete secured first place again for Best Sensatori Resort.  It was the very first Sensatori and has won a Gold Medal award every year, since it opened in 2008. Premier Le Reve Hotel & Spa in Egypt came in first position for the Best Thomson Couples Resort, Hotel Atlantica Golden Beach, Cyprus picked up Best Gold Accommodation and Blue Lagoon Village, Kos topped the Thomson Family Resort hotels. For First Choice Holiday Village Rhodes came top in the Best Holiday Village category for the third year running and Aqua Nevis Clubhotel, Bulgaria won Best SplashWorld Accommodation. Representatives from across all of the hotel groups, who operate the differentiated holiday experience for TUI, were in attendance to collect their awards. 

David Burling, Managing Director for TUI UK & Ireland said: "We are committed to offering our customers the best possible holiday experience and providing them with a service they cannot find elsewhere. We would not be able to do this without the support of our hoteliers.  It is the hoteliers who enable us to offer our customers an extensive range of high quality accommodation and exciting destinations, and it is great to have a fantastic evening like this to reward them for all of their hard work."

Garry Wilson, Product and Purchasing Director for TUI UK & Ireland said: "We have had a great night celebrating the success of our hoteliers. Maintaining our fantastic relationships with hoteliers around the world is key to our strategy of offering unique holiday experiences. We'd like to thank them for their continued support and look forward to working with them in 2014."

The full list of award winners include:

Supplier Sustainability Award - Protur Biomar Gran Hotel & Spa, Majorca

Best First Choice 3 Sun Accommodation - Club Alize Apartments, Turkey

Best First Choice 4 Sun Accommodation - Louis King Jason Apartments, Cyprus

Best First Choice 5 Sun Accommodation - Kefaluka Resort, Turkey

Best First Choice Premier Accommodation - Cornelia Diamond Golf Resort & Spa, Turkey

Best Thomson 2T Accommodation - Cosmos Maris Studios, Rhodes

Best Thomson 3T Accommodation - Mayflower Apartments, Kos

Best Thomson 4T Accommodation - Restia Suites, Corfu

Best Thomson 5T Accommodation - Hotel Gran Sol, Majorca

Best Small and Friendly Accommodation - Villa Andreas Studios, Parga

Best Thomson A La Carte Accommodation - Ali Bey Resort Side, Turkey

Best Thomson Platinum Accommodation - Hotel Sunrise Pearl

Best Thomson Gold Accommodation - Hotel Atlantica Golden Beach, Cyprus

Best SplashWorld Accommodation - Aqua Nevis Clubhotel, Bulgaria

Best Thomson Family Resorts Accommodation - Blue Lagoon Village, Kos

Best Holiday Village Accommodation - Holiday Village Rhodes

Best Thomson Couples Accommodation - Premier Le Reve Hotel & Spa, Egypt

Best Sensatori Accommodation - Sensatori Resort Crete

Take a look at some of the fantastic action from last night's awards ceremony by searching #GoldAwards on Twitter.

ENDS

Images available upon request or visit http://thomson.presscentre.com/default.aspx

For more information contact Grace Jones grace.jones@thomson.co.uk @TUINewsRoom or call 01582 648725.

TUI UK & Ireland

TUI UK and Ireland is the UK's largest tour operator. Key brands include Thomson and First Choice, who between them account for half of the mainstream market within the UK and Thomson Cruises. Sub brands include Sensatori, Thomson Couples, Thomson Family Resorts, First Choice Holiday Villages and SplashWorld resorts. TUI UK and Ireland's airline, Thomson Airways is the UK's third largest airline with 57 aircraft and employs over 4,000 people in the UK and Ireland including approximately 780 pilots and 2,600 cabin crew, operating to over 88 destinations in 30 countries. Thomson Airways was the first airline in the UK to fly customers on Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and is operating the aircraft on selected long haul routes.

TUI UK and Ireland employ a team of 17,000 employees and serve over 5.5 million customers each year. Thomson and First Choice currently have around 750 retail shops across the UK.

TUI Travel PLC

TUI Travel PLC is one of the world's leading international leisure travel groups operating in approximately 180 countries worldwide. It serves more than 30 million customers in over 31 source markets. Headquartered in the UK, the Group employs approximately 54,000 people and operates a pan-European airline group consisting of 141 aircraft. The Group is organised and managed through three business Sectors: Mainstream, Accommodation & Destinations and Specialist & Activity. In the financial year ended 30 September 2012, TUI Travel reported revenues of £14.5bn and an underlying operating profit of £490m.

TUI Travel is listed on the London Stock Exchange as a member of the FTSE 100 and FTSE4Good Indices.

For more information visit www.tuitravelplc.com