St Lucia Photo Tour Wins International Luxury Travel Award
St Lucia Press Release
For the second year in succession the St Lucia Photo Tour has won the UK based Luxury Travel Guide’s prestigious Luxury Travel Award in its annual Holiday & Tour Specialist Awards. In 2016 Luxury Travel Guide’s judging panel awarded acclaimed Saint Lucia Photographer Kirk Elliott the title of Unique Tour Operator of the Year for Saint Lucia. This was for his uniquely novel approach to helping visitors sharpen their photography while holidaying in Saint Lucia.
Now in 2017 Elliott has won big again, this time being judged the Cultural Tour Operator of the Year for Saint Lucia for his enhancement of the St Lucia Photo Tour which now offers a deeper cultural insight into Saint Lucia through the lenses of visitors’ cameras.
Awards Coordinator for Luxury Travel Guide, Max Bond informed Elliott that: “All Luxury Travel Guide Award programs represent the pinnacle of achievement, championing the best in their respective fields, therefore to come out as a clear winner is an achievement to be proud of.”
Bond further explained: “Award winners that have demonstrated success and innovation will gain a place in our soon-to-be published award winners’ guide, which will be printed & distributed to over half a million subscribers alongside our printed distribution which will see over 250,000 hard copies sent to luxury hotels, cruise ships and airport lounges across the world.”
Elliott is delighted to have won these awards and is thrilled at the recognition they bring. When asked what he thinks placed him on the radar of the luxury travel market Elliott recalled: “A Photo Tour client vacationing at a luxury Saint Lucia resort felt that more guests at the resort could really benefit from a day out with me as he saw so many fancy cameras around. He introduced me to a team member at the resort, I was asked a few questions and next thing I knew – The St Lucia Photo Safari was one of the resort’s in house Signature Excursions.”
Elliott is passionate not just about sharing insights on creating photography that wows, but also on introducing visitors to the heart and soul of Saint Lucia as can only be experienced through authentic cultural immersion. Elliott firmly believes that this more than anything else has led to the success of the Photo Tour. “I take visitors on a journey in pursuit of photographic excellence. This could be the perfect shot of fishermen boning and prepping fish on the docks. Or it might be a baker down in Anse La Raye turning out the sweetest butter bread you ever tasted – with sweat in her eyes and a smile on her face as she labours in the heat of her brick oven; or any other of the myriad activities we take for granted but which truly represent excellence in execution while being authentically Saint Lucian.”
With tourism as the primary economic engine of growth in Saint Lucia Elliott believes that awards and recognition such as the Luxury Travel Award serve to empower and encourage other locals to embrace entrepreneurship and to create niche tourism products that lead to job creation and meaningful economic growth right across Saint Lucia’s entire social strata.
