Gray Dawes Travel Are Crowned Travel Partner Of The Year: European TMC at the 2021 Business Travel Awards
For over 25-years, The Business Travel Awards have been regarded as the highest accolades in the business travel sector – the Oscars of the corporate travel industry – honouring the best suppliers in a variety of categories. The 2021 Business Travel Europe Awards, organised by the BTN Group, recognise and celebrate the industry’s response to what has been an extremely challenging year. In particular, the awards for 2021 placed an emphasis on how companies have best demonstrated leadership, partnership and innovation throughout the last 12 months.
We’re absolutely thrilled to have been crowned champions at the prestigious 2021 Business Travel Awards, winning Travel Partner of the Year, European TMC. Winning the Best European TMC category is an outstanding achievement, as these awards are highly competitive and involve a detailed written submission and entry process. The judging protocol, conducted by a panel of 27 leading business travel managers and consultants, is rigorous and totally impartial. After completing stage one of the written submission, each finalist was then required to prepare a comprehensive case study demonstrating successful collaboration with a corporate client or partner to target certain goals.
Our submission emphasised the Gray Dawes’ focus on delivery outstanding service, innovation and value, throughout what has undoubtedly been unprecedentedly challenging times for the travel industry. In awarding this highest of accolades to Gray Dawes Travel, the judging panel commended our investment in customer-facing services and technologies, as well as the development of our new products, such as Legacy, our sustainability programme and Podium, our traveller wellbeing initiative. Special commendation was given to our client communications throughout the Covid period and beyond, through our ‘Working From Home’ and ‘Back To Business… Travel’ blogs and our unique Traveller Toolkit, designed to help clients navigate a post-Brexit, pandemic world.
The awards submission also highlighted other initiatives, not least how we have managed our business during the Covid crisis and the extraordinary lengths we have gone to in protecting our staff. We continue to place a huge emphasis on communication and wellbeing. We’ve often set the agenda for debate and best practice; not least in how we conduct our business from a client perspective, but how we treat our staff. The past 12 months have really showcased that through our communication and engagement strategies. Since March 2020, we have maintained a totally transparent and fiercely regular communication with our clients and our staff. Live Townhall broadcasts from our Senior Leadership Team every Friday via our YouTube channel are supported by weekly ‘At Home With The SLT’ Zoom sessions.
Despite the severe impact of pandemic, Gray Dawes also successfully secured significant record-breaking levels of new business, which was also recognised by the judging panel.
Accepting the award on behalf of the company, Group Marketing Director, John Cooper, said:
This is such a fantastic achievement for everyone at Gray Dawes. Following the year the industry has gone through, to be recognised and rewarded for all the innovation and hard work every single member staff puts in to make us who we are is really special. I’m so pleased for all our staff to accept this amazing award, and so grateful for the support of our wonderful clients and partners.
Gray Dawes’ approach of delivering a high-touch personal service coupled with cutting edge technology and business innovation throughout the pandemic and beyond was applauded, blowing away the competition and ensuring we secured the win.
It was a fantastic night, compered by comedian Rob Beckett, with a black-tie attendance of over 750 at the glittering Grosvenor House Park Lane venue. Of course, the Gray Dawes contingent danced well into the early hours, but we’re up and back at work first thing the next morning!
To help you navigate the changes of business travel, we’ve created the brand-new Traveller Toolkit. This invaluable online resource is packed full of easy-to-use guides and checklists for every stage of every journey. We detail exactly what you need to know and do before, during and after your trip.
You’ll also find innovative and interactive virtual trips, which walk you through each step of being at the airport, on the train and in the hotel. You can even check the travel restrictions and health status of your destination with our comprehensive COVID-19 Country Tracker, updated five times daily to ensure you have the very latest information to help keep you and your travellers safe.
Travel is changing. But with common sense and a good TMC behind you, travellers should have the confidence to once again take to the skies. It’ll soon be business as (un)usual.