World Travel Market

LATA Foundation founder receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Latin America Travel Association at World Travel Market.

The annual LATA Party was held at the Commonwealth Club on Tuesday 8 November and was attended by around 400 specialists in Latin America as well as members of the travel press. The event was sponsored by Tam Airlines in conjunction with Turismo Chile.  Amongst the distinguished guests were Baroness Hooper, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Committee for Latin America, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lamont who has visited nearly all the countries in Latin America. 

Music was provided by Brazilian DJ Moises Matzenbacher. Wines of Chile held some excellent wine-tasting advice and samples. Elena Gattinara of Austral Tours collected donations on behalf of the Foundation, many thanks to her for her efforts in raising £100.

One of our trustees, Edward Paine, a former chairman  of LATA, introduced the speakers: Odile Palustan of Turismo Chile and Sue Faithful of Tam Airlines, who both briefly spoke to welcome guests. LATA Foundation chairman David Gilmour thanked LATA and the travel industry for their help in identifying and supporting our projects which are now helping thousands of people throughout Latin America.  

LATA awards were given as follows:

Sustainability:             Mountain Lodges of Peru

Innovation:                 Inkaterra

Customer Service:       Rainforest Expeditions

Promotional Success:   Tierra Hotels (Tierra Atacama and Tierra Patagonia)

LATA Hall of Fame                                                                                                                                                      A special Lifetime Achievment Award was then presented to LATA Foundation founder, Richard Brass, in recognition of his services to Latin America.

The award is well-deserved. In addition to running Austal Tours with Elena Gattinari, Richard has long been treasurer of LATA and was the driving force behind the creation of the LATA Foundation. As founder, first chairman and current treasurer of the LATA Foundation, he remains on our board of trustees.

Fundraising and Sponsors

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to Cathy Matos Mexican Tours as our latest sponsor. Cathy has been a member of LATA since inception and has been greatly inspired by the practical action that the LATA Foundation has undertaken with our Mexico projects.

We are grateful also to Bradt Travel Guides who distributed leaflets about our turtle protection project at the Rutland Birding Fair some months ago. Bradt Travel Guides have been able to adopt a nest and a turtle named Myrtle.

We would also like to thank Katrina Mowbray who ran a half marathon recently for the LATA Foundation. For information about other recent sponsors and supporters, please see our Recent Fundraising pages.

We are particularly grateful to those who have set up monthly direct debits to support our work. £10 a month helps us train disadvantaged adolescents in Colombia or with reforestation in Peru or with turtle protection in Venezuela. £10 purchases 12 yards of pipes for our water project in Nicaragua.   

Date added: 09 November 2011