What a night to remember. A celebration of all that is good about the UK’s travel industry. An industry that knows how to party, even in supposedly “Dry January”. I had the privilege of sitting next to Andrew Swaffield, CEO of Monarch Group who was honoured under the Outstanding Achievement Award. Turning around a loss making airline is no easy feat. Piers Morgan was a surprise guest, representing the Daily Mail, which is kind of weird as we all associate him with the Daily Mirror. Piers knows he is a kind of hate figure for a lot of people, but he uses this with great effect and much humour….the man held the room of 1200 people like no one else last night. We had three other winners on our table, Kuoni Holidays and their enigmatic MD Derek Jones were double winners, as was Saga Travel. James Harrison also picked up the innovation award for Etihad for their Suite in the Sky concept. If I ever win the lottery, I’m booking one. The headline act was Dame Edna Everage, and it was hard to tell whether she was hamming up the confusion or if it was all just happening naturally as she created havoc on stage for normally unflappable Lucy Huxley, the unofficial Queen of Travel Weekly. X-Factor winner Louisa proved to everyone what a worthy winner she was, and the best was saved to last as Rick Parfitt Junior rocked the crowd with cover classics into the wee hours. Thank you Travel Weekly, you know how to throw a party, and thank you UK travel industry for knowing how to enjoy one on a school night in January.