The South China Morning Post was yesterday presented with the Pacific Asia Travel Association's grand award for heritage. Reporter Kevin Sinclair received the award from its chairman, Nobutaka Ishikure, in Pattaya, Thailand, where the association is meeting. The award was for a series of articles, 'Living Villages', about New Territories communities, which was researched and written by Sinclair and reporter Anneliese O'Young Ruo-hwa and published last year. The series had been well received in Hong Kong and had made a contribution to the understanding of the value of village culture, Pata president Peter de Jong said. Sinclair was also named travel journalist of the year by the world's largest tourism and travel body. Mr de Jong said the award recognised journalists who had raised the bar of journalistic quality, consistently provided unique insights or persisted in coverage where others would have backed off.
