Agency boss honoured after dismissing award nomination as ‘spam’
Harry KembleThorne Travel boss Shona Thorne has revealed to TTG how she mistook a message inviting her to the Scottish Women’s Awards, where she was honoured at the weekend, for a spam message.
Thorne collected the Business of the Year (less than 50 staff) award at the ceremony in Glasgow on Saturday night (16 September), which saw her efforts to innovate and foster a supportive and diverse workforce highlighted, as well as her work within the local community.
She told TTG: “When I received the email from the awards, I thought it was spam, but I replied saying ‘thank you very much’.
"I was very surprised because it was not a travel-specific award – customers and other businesses voted for us. It will be pretty nice to tell customers about our award.”
The award comes amid what has been another highly successful year for the two-branch Ayrshire agency after it was named TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies top agency in Scotland for the fourth time in April.
Manager John Ferguson, meanwhile, recently established the Cruising with Thorne Travel brand, as was the runner-up in the Cruise Consultant of the Year category at the recent Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association’s Sparkle Awards.
In addition, Christiane McCorgray was named the Touring and Adventure Consultant of the Year at the same awards.
“It has been the business’s most successful year ever,” said Thorne.
She added Thorne Travel was actively looking for new sites to which it could expand. “We’re certainly looking for more shops in Scotland,” Thorne said.
Since September 2022, Thorne Travel has hired a new marketing manager, three travel experts and created two travel apprentice roles. The agency is currently looking to fill five further roles across the business.
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