L&K Travel at the Killacourt won the TUI Community Hero award at the Top 50 Travel Agencies 2025 ceremony held in Manchester.
Jessica Gardener, the director of L&K Travel received the recognition after organising various community events during her first year of business.
She organised various initiatives including a Secret Santa food hampers and toys for families at Christmas, a special opening event with a free bouncy castle, ice-cream and a band for residents in aid if the RNLI as well as an innovative Search for the Sun food hamper campaign.
Mrs Gardener said “We managed to help those in the local community when they needed it most. I am so, so proud of what we have achieved in the short time we have been open and there is no stopping us. We will continue to do as much as we can to help those around us.
“We want to thank every single person in our fantastic community for coming together and making this possible. Without the generous donations, support and motivation from everyone we wouldn’t have achieved what we did.
“We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts.
“People now know that by booking their next getaway with L&K Travel, they are supporting local. “They are giving back to your local community. We don’t know how to put into words, what this means to us. This is a huge achievement for us here at L&K Travel and we couldn’t do it without the support of all of our wonderful customers and our incredible community.
“Well done Newquay and let’s make it our mission to give back as much as we possibly can to those within our community that need it most. None of this would be possible without local support.”
A spokesperson for TUI said: “This travel agency might still be in its first year of operation, but judges said co-founder Jessica had done more to support and engage the local community in that time than most other agencies manage across many years.
“L&K Travel’s launch in May last year saw Jessica and her co-founder husband Laurie hold a special opening event with a free bouncy castle, ice-cream and a band for local residents, but also took the opportunity to raise money for RNLI Newquay.
“An innovative “Search for the Sun” campaign in August saw Jess put together five hampers of local produce and hide an L&K sun around Newquay in a different location every day, sharing clues in live broadcasts on Facebook Live.
“But it was L&K Travel’s Christmas efforts that really stunned the judges, with the agency running a major “Secret Santa” programme which invited local people to submit a form to request toys, food or gifts for loved ones or children who wouldn’t otherwise receive anything.
“The local community was then asked to donate money or choose items from an Amazon gift list to help the agency fulfil as many requests as possible.
“Jess handed out more than 250 leaflets, including in a local school, and the project even caught the attention of BBC Spotlight, which sent a crew to interview her.
“In all, L&K Travel delivered 53 gift and food hampers, dropped off 15 Aldi gift cards to the church for those in need, donated 25 new items to a local charity, and donated more than £50 worth of dog food to the RSPCA Newquay.
“In total, more than £1,000 was raised and gifts worth more than £500 were given to deserving recipients.”
L&K Travel are holding an event on the Killacourt on June 1 from 11am to 3pm
There will be over 18 tour operators in attendance, a charity raffle, free coffee and ice cream, bouncy castles as well as a bar and garden games in aid of the Hugs Foundation.