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Your chance to vote for the most pioneering woman in travel

The everywoman in Travel Awards is in its second year - Jordan Siemens
The everywoman in Travel Awards is in its second year - Jordan Siemens

An award to celebrate trailblazing women in the travel industry launches this weekend in partnership with Telegraph Travel.

The second annual everywoman in Travel Awards is now open for nominations, seeking the most remarkable females in the business, from leaders and entrepreneurs to revolutionaries and ones to watch. But it is the new Pioneer of the Year award that will celebrate those who most inspire travel in others.

The everywoman in Travel Awards has added several new categories for 2018 - Credit: Getty
The everywoman in Travel Awards has added several new categories for 2018 Credit: Getty

Open to public vote by way of a poll (see below), a six-strong shortlist includes daring motorcyclist Lois Pryce, who rode from Alaska to Argentina, presenter and documentary maker Kate Humble, and Sarah Outen, who completed a round the world tour by bike, boat and foot in the name of economic sustainability.

Author Dervla Murphy, whose first book Full Tilt remains one of the most widely referenced travel memories, Jo Ruxton, an environmentalist who raised awareness of the damage done to our sealife by plastic with her film A Plastic Ocean, and Easyjet pilot Marnie Munns, who campaigns tirelessly on encouraging more women into our cockpits, complete the list.

See more about the six candidates and an opportunity to vote for your winner below.

The 2018 everywoman in Travel Awards is looking for nominations for a raft of other categories, with entries free and open until June 11. Visit everywoman.com/travel-awards for more information.

Four categories new this year include the Male Agent for Change, recognising a man “for his active commitment to advancing the progress of women working in travel”, while Executive Leader, Leader of Change and International Inspiration awards are also enjoying their debut.

16 pioneering female adventurers you should have heard of
16 pioneering female adventurers you should have heard of

“We launched the everywoman in Travel Awards in 2017 to recognise the best female talent in the industry. This year, we also wanted to celebrate the work that many men are doing to encourage more gender-balanced work forces at a senior level, which is why we have introduced the Male Agent of Change Award,” said Karen Gill, co-founder of everywoman.

“The purpose of these awards is to recognise those whose contribution will ensure the future success of the travel industry and that women are able to participate fully and be recognised regardless of seniority or circumstance.”

See here for last year's winners

The six candidates for everywoman Pioneer of the Year award

Lois Pryce

Dissatisfied with her job at BBC Music, in 2003, Pryce quit London and leathered up for a 10-month solo motorcycle journey from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina thus launching a new career as adventurer/author. Her first book, Lois on the Loose - a highly acclaimed tale of this journey now available in four languages across the globe - laid the foundations for her following accounts Red Tape & White Knuckles and Revolutionary Ride, quick-witted narrations of her motorcycle rides through the Sahara, the Congo Basin & Angora and Iran respectively. She and her husband co-founded The Adventure Travel Film Festival which takes place in Australia, Scotland and London annually.

Marnie Munns

Marnie Munns has emerged as a hero amid the current gender pay gap scandal which revealed only 6% of Easyjet pilots to be women. Marnie has been fighting gender stereotypes as an aeroplane captain for 18 years and recently has actively encouraged young women to pursue careers as commercial aeroplane pilots through various appearance both in print and televised media. As Easyjet's ambassador for their 'Amy Johnson Flying Initiative' she continues to front a campaign to raise Easyjet's new female co-pilot intake to 20 per cent by 2020.

Female pilots by airline
Female pilots by airline

Kate Humble

Humble’s first TV appearance was in 1990 when, then a researcher at the BBC, she was called upon to play a brief scene in a docudrama detailing the life of Ian Fleming. She’s since become a household name as one of the BBC’s most engaging science and wildlife presenters - most famously alongside Bill Oddie on Springwatch - despite having no formal science qualifications and having left school aged 16 after a below average school career. Not only is she a skilled television presenter with a portfolio of hard-hitting documentaries under her belt, but her writing, often published in the Telegraph, is just as gripping and informative.  

Sarah Outen

Outen first stepped into a rowing boat as a biology undergraduate at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford. Little did she know then that she would shortly become not only the youngest person to row the Indian Ocean, but the first woman ever to do so. She was consequently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and awarded an MBE for services to rowing, conservation and charity as a result. That was in 2009. More recently, Outen completed a round the world tour by boat, bike and foot - a four year journey which ignited in her a passion for environmental sustainability. She now travels the country sharing her stories and first hand accounts of plastic pollution - an issue which she feels strongly about, citing Dame Ellen McArthur as a personal icon.

Jo Ruxton

Jo Ruxton's lengthy career in environmental conservation started with an eight-year stint at the World Wildlife Fund in Asia. After successfully launching the charity's marine conservation scheme in Hong Kong - amid other achievements - she then joined the BBC Natural History Unit where she was a part of the celebrated and highly-awarded The Blue Planet team. Upon leaving the BBC, Jo produced a feature-length documentary film - A Plastic Ocean - the success of which led her to co-found the Plastic Oceans Foundation, a charity which aims to inform and educate people on the dangers of plastic pollution. In the almost decade since the charity was founded, Jo has traveled the conference theatres of the world raising awareness for the charity.

Dervla Murphy

Dervla Murphy’s first book, Full Tilt (published 1965), remains one of the most widely referenced travel memoirs in modern history. Throughout her life, Murphy’s travels have largely intertwined with charity work. Between 1965 and 1966 she leant her support to various refugee projects in Delhi, Tibet and Nepal - described in her second book, Tibetan Foothold - and later drew international attention to the AIDS Crisis after witnessing the viral devastation firsthand on a bicycle ride from Kenya to Zimbabwe.

Despite physical setbacks, age hasn’t quashed Murphy’s appetite for travel. At 71, she attempted to cycle the Ussuriland of Eastern Russia during which journey she broke her knee and tore her calf muscle. Fearlessly, she then spent the summer of 2011 on the Gaza strip which provided the content for her following two books: A Month by the Sea and Between River and Sea. She is also a patron for sustrans (a charity for sustainable travel) and for the Lismore Immamra Festival of Travel Writing.