CREWE photographer Jonathan White has been named Photographer of the Year in the first annual TripAdvisor Community Awards.

Jonathan scooped the prize because he has submitted more photographs to TripAdvisor in the past 12 months than anyone else in the UK.

He has submitted more than 3,000 pictures this year and almost 11,000 photos overall.

"Photography has been a hobby of mine for years," said Jonathan, 44, from Wistaston.

"I send pictures to TripAdvisor if I think they will be useful to other people. It's about quality rather than quantity. I send pictures from Crewe and Nantwich or from my trips abroad."


Jonathan is also a regular contributor to the Guardian, especially in the 'reader picture' section.


"I was born in Nantwich and live in Crewe and I'm very proud of where I come from," said Jonathan, who works at South Cheshire College.


"People can be very negative about where they live so I like to promote the positive side.


"About eight years ago I attended a local fete and wrote a piece about it for the village newsletter and it's snowballed from there. I like publicising all the good things that are going on."

Jonathan won a suimilar TripAdvisor award in 2013 for uploading the most pictures.

This year's awards, dubbed “The Ollies” after the TripAdvisor mascot Ollie the Owl, recognises the individual TripAdvisor members who made the most contributions to the site in 2015 across eight different award categories, with awards given to travellers at a world, continent and country level.

A total of 82 travellers received awards, drawn from a community of over 90 million TripAdvisor members.

Globally, Hugo Schierling from Argentina is named as the world’s Review Contributor of the Year, having submitted over 1,500 reviews in 2015, while Simon-Pierre Vullierme from France earns the World Traveller of the Year accolade, given to the one TripAdvisor member worldwide who reviewed experiences in the most countries over the past year.

The Ollies also honour member achievements in the UK travel community specifically, with six members from the UK winning across seven local award categories. They include:

•UK Review Contributor of the Year = Ernest Swift from Sheffield

•New Contributor of the Year = Stephen Kelly from Liverpool

•Accommodation Reviewer of the Year = Sarah Carter from Essex

• Food Reviewer of the Year = Stephen Kelly from Liverpool

•Attractions Reviewer of the Year = Fola Esan from London

•Travel Photographer of the Year = Jonathan White from Crewe

“Consumers can book their trips confidently on TripAdvisor thanks to the advice millions of travellers have shared on our site,” said Barbara Messing, chief marketing officer for TripAdvisor.

“We have launched the Ollies to give a deserved spotlight to those individuals who made the most contributions in 2015, and to celebrate their efforts to improve the travel experience for others around the world.”

2015 saw a huge increase in the number of reviews and opinions posted on TripAdvisor, with a community of over 90 million members worldwide contributing content to the site.

TripAdvisor now features more than 290 million reviews and opinions, spanning 5.3 million businesses and properties in more than 126,000 destinations.