Maidstone based Travel Counsellor, Saffron Tennant, is flying high after being recognised for her outstanding customer care during the ash cloud crisis.

Saffron was presented with the Penny Akam Unsung Hero in Travel Award at the 2011 Globe Travel Awards held at London’s prestigious Grosvenor House hotel on Tuesday night (18th Jan).

During the ash crisis, Saffron was one of many travel agents who had customers stranded in various holiday destinations across Europe. After arranging for her customers to travel to Calais, Saffron went above and beyond the call of duty to collect the group from the French port and bring them back to the UK.

Having travelled twice to the continent to bring home her stranded customers, the judges decided to honour Saffron as an example of those within the industry who excelled during an unprecedented series of events.

Saffron says, “I am shocked and delighted to have won this prestigious industry award. For me, doing the very best for my customers is part of my job. I love what I do and take great pride and passion in giving the very best service to my customers. Doing what I did during the ash crisis came as second nature, so to be recognised and given an award for this really is amazing and a fantastic honour.”

The Globe Travel Awards are the only awards voted for solely by expert travel agents, and the glittering awards ceremony is widely regarded as the pinnacle of the travel industry calendar. The event was hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr, with entertainment provided by world champion street dance group, Britain’s Got Talent finalists’ Flawless and Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson.

Saffron has been running her own travel business as part of the award winning company Travel Counsellors for over three years. Comments Saffron; “Not many high-street agents could have done what I did for my clients during the ash crisis. That’s the beauty of working for myself.”

Working from home and using award winning technology, Travel Counsellors are always available at a time to suit their customers, including evenings and weekends.

Saffron (middle) received her award from Travel Weekly Chief Executive Simon Ferguson (far left) and on the Beach Commercial Director Johnny Pollard (far right)