SL Tour Guide wins British Travel Mag Award

A Sri Lankan tour guide has won a major award from Britain’s popular ‘Wanderlust’ magazine in its annual World Guide Awards, set up to recognise the unsung heroes of the travel industry.

Bruno Dawsun, originally from the Central Highlands, works for Intrepid Travel and his prize carries a bursary which he is ploughing into education for others.

The son of a Tamil tea plantation worker and the sixth of seven children, Bruno planned to join the church but switched to tour guiding.

Readers of ‘Wanderlust’ showered compliments on the Sri Lankan tour guide and praise included, “he is a cultural ambassador for his country”, “knowing Bruno has enriched our lives” and “his soul is beautiful, gentle and pure”.

One of the competition judges Graham Boynton, the Travel Editor of The Telegraph newspaper in London, said, “Bruno’s kindness and warmth jumps out from the testimonials.”

Bruno has already begun to use his bursary in a humane way. He has sponsored two students who have gone on to university in Sri Lanka and he hopes to sponsor three people from poor families to study English and information technology.

As well as tour guiding for Intrepid Travel, Bruno currently runs a computer centre where 10 pupils are given subsidised tuition and he intends to sponsor people to attend his guiding course, thus creating a new generation of extraordinary tour guides.

The ‘Wanderlust’ World Guide Awards are the only awards of their kind in the world and the magazine is inundated with thousands of nominations every year from its adventurous and loyal readers who are asked to name those that transform a holiday trip into the experience of a lifetime.