We are incredibly proud to celebrate Holiday Village Business Owner Emma Andrews, who has been named Champion of Change at the 2026 ATAS Recognition Awards.
Emma received the award at the ATAS Conference this week, recognising her commitment to sustainable and responsible tourism and the work she continues to do to encourage positive change within our business, with her customers and across the wider travel industry.
For anyone within the Travel Village Group who knows Emma, the recognition will come as little surprise.
She has been a passionate advocate for responsible tourism for a number of years, previously receiving nominations for several sustainability awards and continually looking for practical ways to make travelling more responsibly part of everyday conversations about holidays.
For Emma, that means making responsible travel the norm rather than the exception.
A genuine Champion of Change
The Champion of Change category recognises agents and agencies putting ESG principles at the heart of their approach to touring and adventure travel, including sustainable practices, protecting local communities and addressing issues such as overtourism.
Emma’s work stretches far beyond her own travel business.
She has played an active role in our Doing Travel Better initiative, helping to share responsible travel advice and ideas with Business Owners and colleagues across the Travel Village Group. She is also a founding member of the Responsible Travel Advisors Collective, working alongside other travel professionals who share her commitment to making tourism a force for good.
Emma said:
“This means so much to me because it reflects the work I’ve been doing to make sustainable, responsible travel the norm rather than the exception, through the Doing Travel Better initiative, my role with the Responsible Travel Advisors Collective, and every conversation I have with clients about travelling in a way that gives back rather than takes.”
She was shortlisted alongside fellow Responsible Travel Advisors Collective founding members Ashley Quint and Annika Nickson, something Emma was particularly keen to recognise following her win.
She added:
“Being in that company said as much to me as winning it.”
Sharing her experience with the industry
It wasn’t only on the awards stage that Emma made her mark at this year’s ATAS Conference.
Earlier in the day, she took to the stage to speak about her recent trip to Italy and the real value of FAM trips, sharing her first-hand experience with fellow travel agents and suppliers.
Emma later admitted that speaking on stage was “possibly the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever done”, only to be stopped by delegates afterwards who told her how much they had enjoyed her presentation.
The positive feedback made the eventual award win an even more memorable end to the day.
Reflecting on everything that had happened, Emma said she was “a little bit overwhelmed” by the response before admitting she was “very surprised to take home the Champion of Change trophy.”
From our Touring & Adventure Academy to the ATAS stage
Emma was also part of the inaugural Travel Village Group Touring & Adventure Academy, our six-month development programme created to give our independent Business Owners deeper knowledge and confidence within the touring and adventure sector.
The programme combines supplier training, first-hand experiences and ongoing professional development, but the aim has always been bigger than simply completing training modules. We want our Business Owners to develop their own specialist knowledge, use it in their businesses and share it with others.
Watching Emma take that knowledge and her existing passion for responsible tourism onto the ATAS stage is exactly the kind of progression we hoped the Academy would encourage.
Jess Clayton, one of the leads behind the Travel Village Group Touring & Adventure Academy, said:
“When Emma was shortlisted, we were already incredibly proud of what she’d achieved, so seeing her actually win Champion of Change was brilliant.
“What makes this recognition particularly special is that responsible tourism isn’t something Emma switches on for an award entry. It’s genuinely part of how she works. She educates her customers, shares what she’s learning with other Business Owners and constantly challenges all of us to think about how we can do travel better.
“The Academy is about developing confident specialists who can bring their own knowledge and passions into their businesses. Seeing Emma speaking on the ATAS stage and then being recognised by the industry later that same day was a pretty fantastic example of that.”
Doing Travel Better
As a family travel business, we know responsible tourism isn’t about having all the answers or expecting people to stop exploring the world.
It’s about continually looking at how we can Do Travel Better, from the holidays we recommend and the suppliers we work with to the choices we can help customers make when they travel.
People like Emma keep that conversation moving forward.
Congratulations, Emma. ATAS Champion of Change 2026. We couldn’t be prouder.
