Given the Czech Republic’s status as a beer super-power it’s not that surprising that the Czech Tourism organisation’s 2012 awards for individuals who have made a significant contribution to the promotion of the Czech Republic as a tourist destination should include two members of the British Guild of Beer Writers.
They are Adrian Tierney-Jones who won the award for best press contribution with his articles in the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times Travel Magazine that display a boundless enthusiasm for both Czech beer and the country itself (‘I love the country, the people, the culture, the countryside and most of all the beer,’ he said in his acceptance speech) and Denis Cox, public relations controller of Budweiser Budvar UK, who was given Czech Tourism’s lifetime achievement award. The awards were presented by Czech Ambassador Michael Zantovsky on the Czech Tourism stand at the World Travel Market show at ExCel this week (Nov 6).
Cox said that whilst he was delighted with the award one for lifetime achievement could perhaps be interpreted as a polite reminder to the recipient that it may be time to go. The only other Czech award he had received was an illuminated scroll from the now defunct Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Trade. It fell under the table during that particular award evening and Cox had to go back to the venue early the following morning to retrieve it , covered in beer stains and foot prints. “That’s why I was relieved to see that the Czech Tourism award was laminated,’ he observed.
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