November 10, 2008
Following a visit to Palazzo Falson, organized by the Malta Tourism Authority in January 2008, of a large group of members from The British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW), one member of the group, Ms Penny Visman, decided to make Palazzo Falson the subject of her entry for The BGTW Award for Best Overseas Project. The conditions for entry were that the subject presented during the award was an overseas tourism project which had opened in the last two years, which is of benefit to the local community, and which is environmentally responsible. Palazzo Falson satisfied all these criteria.
Penny Visman explains that: ‘All BGTW members are invited to enter a project - which gives us a 'long list' of entrants. In September an Awards Selection Evening is held where members have to deliver their presentation. During that evening a short list of three finalists each in the Overseas and UK categories is selected. Past winners include projects from Zambia, Kenya, Madagascar, India, USA, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Thailand etc.’
The Awards Selection Evening was held on Monday 1st September and we were delighted to be informed that Ms Visman’s presentation on Palazzo Falson was shortlisted to the top three. All members of the BGTW who didn't attend the Selection Evening consequently voted by email for the three short-listed projects.
The Annual Awards Dinner was held at The Marriott in Grosvenor Square, London on the 9th November 2008. This dinner was attended by over 300 travel and tourism professionals, and during the dinner images of Palazzo Falson and the other finalists were projected on to big screens. Palazzo Falson was highly commended and was awarded runner-up status. We consider this an excellent result and are proud to have been the only European site to make it to the finals in this category of award. Executive Chairman Maurice de Giorgio and CEO Michael Lowell from Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti and Francesca Balzan, curator of Palazzo Falson, attended the Awards Dinner.
