Thistle Awards scooped by local man and festival

Nov 4 2008 By Patricia Lewis

TWO PRESTIGOUS awards were scooped by a local festival and entrepreneur at VisitScotland’s annual Thistle Awards in Edinburgh recently.

The Wigtown Book Festival won an award in the Events and Festival category while Tom Gillespie won a silver accolade in recognition of his 40 years of service to the tourism industry.

The Book Festival is also celebrating its best year to date since beginning ten years ago.

This year saw ticket sales rocket to 12,500, putting ticket sales up by 52% on last year’s 8,150.

Retiring Wigtown Festival Director Finn McCreath who accepted the award from comedian Ronnie Corbett said: “This is a fantastic double whammy of good news for the Festival and I’m really proud of what we have achieved. 

“This could not have happened without the invaluable help of all our volunteers and supporters and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each one of them.  We are looking forward to the 2009 Festival building on these achievements and really putting Wigtown on the British literary map”.

The Thistle Awards are organised by VisitScotland and is held annually to recognise the contributions festivals, organisations and individuals have made to the tourism industry.

The night was also a success for local man Tom Gillespie who lifted the Silver Thistle for his contribution to the tourist industry.

Tom who now owns his own holiday business, Gillespie Leisure began his career selling tent pitches before gradually moving up to owning a multi-million pound holiday resort.

Over the year’s he has worked with many organisations within the tourism industry including the British Holiday and Home Parks Association, the Scottish Confederation of Tourism and Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway.

Tom who was left stunned by receiving the award said: “First of all I was surprised and then delighted.

I really didn’t know that I was going to get it. I was just there to be supportive.

“When it was read out I realised it was myself and I was dumbfounded.”

Tom went onto say that when he first started off nearly four decades ago in the tourism industry that things were a lot different from what they are now. He said: “When we started out in the seventies caravans were particularly modest. We invested from there really in the eighties and expanded.”

But despite his long-service Tom stressed that he would not be retiring anytime soon. He said: “I’m not one for easy retirement. Business has always been my hobby.”

Peter Lederer, the Chairman of VisitScotland said: “Tom is the epitome of everything positive in the Scottish tourist industry today; an inspirational leader who has shaped and steered tourism to the highest standards of quality that it is today.

“In his 40 years in the industry, Tom has developed four hugely successful caravan sites and two golf courses in Dumfries & Galloway, and he also champions and sponsors one of golf's most successful initiatives, the South of Scotland Golf Academy.”   

“I congratulate him and all the other businesses here tonight and wish them all every success in the future.”