A Catbrook woman has been honoured with a Medal of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) in the King’s Birthday Honours List 2025 for Services to Tourism in Wales.

Fiona Wilton is one of the first students of Tourism in the UK and has since spent a lifetime in the industry.

A Fellow of the Institute of Travel and Tourism before retiring she worked “at the coal face” in travel companies, gained extensive tertiary lecturing experience in Tourism to students, and became an International Tourism Consultant specialising in Tourism as a lever for Economic Development.

Fiona has worked all over the world - places as diverse in their needs and stability as Fiji, Mongolia, the Andaman Islands, Suriname, Uganda, Yemen,the Caribbean islands,Sri Lanka,Egypt and the Baltic States to name but a few of the many dozens of nation states.

Having founded Monmouthshire Cottages near Tintern in SE Wales with her husband in the 1990s, she joined the board of Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Tourism, later becoming Chair, served as a Director of Capital Region Tourism, Chaired the South East Wales Tourism Forum for Visit Wales for two separateterms, and currently serves on the Destination Partnership group of Monmouthshire Tourism.

In addition to voluntary Tourism destination work in Wales, she is also an active member of Tintern Business Group, organises charity and fund- raising events at Catbrook Memorial Hall, stewards and judges regularly at Monmouth Show -as well as and running a number of social media accounts for community groups.

These wholly voluntary efforts, delivered when also running a family home and both a consulting and an award-winning self- catering business, have collectively totalled more than three days a week on average for nearly 30 years.

She says “Tourism is an eco-system. Small businesses like ours work hand in hand with big ones and with all levels of Government. We are interdependent and it’s important that everyone contributes as when tourism is well managed it’s certainly about the enjoyment of visitors to Wales- but it also provides huge economic and social benefit to local residents-and that’s all of us. It has been an immense pleasure and privilege to offer my time within Wales, where we chose to make our home and set up our business.

An enormous Diolch yn fawr to those who have honoured me.I’m absolutely amazed and deeply humbled to receive this award.”