Travel award for editor

Taumarunui travel writer and publishing editor of Inside Tourism Nigel Coventry has been named the 2008 Pasific Asia Travel Association Travel Journalist of the Year. PATA president Peter de Jong said Coventry had been a bastion of professional journalism for more than 30 years. “IT has  grown to become a primary source of tourism-related editorial for stakeholders in New Zealand’s travel and tourism industry and continues to break new ground with its independent analytical approach to industry news,” said de Jong. Coventry said he was delighted to receive the award. “I was totally flabbergasted as I live in a very small town in a very small country at the bottom of the world – and someone noticed my work,” he said. Coventry founded Inside Tourism in 1994.