The British Guild of Travel Writers has extended the deadline for its popular, annual New Travel Writers competition until 7 February 2014.  The competition is for 850-word features by UK-based residents who have not previously had travel features published.  The winner and two runners up will be honoured at the Guild's annual Yearbook launch to be held in March 2014. 

Co-sponsored by Traveller magazine, the competition's theme is People & Places in which the writer is asked to feature a person or persons who made a significant impact on his or her impressions of a travel experience or destination.  All manuscripts should be sent as single-spaced Word attachments to the travel competition's dedicated email: bgtwcompetitions@outlook.com. Full details of the competition are available on the Guild website: www.bgtw.org (tap into Awards/New Travel Writers Competition 2014).

This is the fifth year that the competition has been held by the 53-year-old Guild, the UK's premier organisation for professional travel writers, editors, photographers and broadcasters.

"Last year's competition attracted hundreds of entries and the judges were extremely impressed with the overall standard of writing and the breadth of destinations covered," said Guild member Nick Dalton, who will co-chair the judging committee with fellow Guild member Deborah Stone, both of them prolific, frequently-published travel writers. Other judges are Mike Unwin, the Guild's 2013 Travel Writer of the Year; Jonathan Lorie, also a Guild member and director of Travellers' Tales training agency for travel writers and photographers; and Amy Sohanpaul, editor of Traveller and The Travellers' Handbook.

The winning entry will be published in Traveller magazine and the Guild's own Globetrotter and its author will be given a free, intensive travel writing course by Travellers Tales as well as a one-year, free membership in Wexas, the Traveller's Club, worth £85 and a £50 voucher toward a booking with Wexas.

Second prize is a one-year membership in Wexas, a £50 voucher toward a booking with the company and a selection of five travel guides written by BGTW members. And the third prize is a selection of these or other travel books written by Guild members.

For further information contact the British Guild of Travel Writers Secretariat, secretariat@bgtw.org or (020) 8144 8713.