BERNAMA.COM: BERNAMA.COM

The poll this year had the highest participation in World Travel Awards' 16-year history, with industry professionals in over 160 countries casting their votes for what they consider to be the very best travel, tourism and hospitality products and services in Asia.

The national carrier's chairman, Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid said this award indicated that Malaysia Airlines' "5-star airline" concept is working.

"We are delighted with this recognition which is testament to the hard work of our employees. Our focus has always been on serving customers. Anchoring this is our commitment to continuous service improvement and delivery, with our customers' needs in mind," he said after the event Saturday night.

He said in achieving this, the airline collate the information from our customers' feedback from all touch points including internal and external surveys, reports from the crew after each flight, and through the customer relations unit.

"This recognition bears testament to the fact that the industry and travellers recognize Malaysia Airlines' brand of service delivery," he added.

Malaysia Airlines has won a string of awards and accolades in 2009. This year, for the 4th consecutive year since 2005, the airline have been accredited a "5-Star Airline" by Skytrax. It is one of only six airlines worldwide to be given this award.

Malaysia Airlines' cabin staff also won the accolade of "World's Best Cabin Staff" by Skytrax. The team has won this over six years, 2001-2004, 2007 and 2009 - the most for any airline.

The World Travel Awards were launched in 1993 to acknowledge and recognize excellence in the world's travel and tourism industry. The awards are regarded as the very highest achievement that a travel product could ever hope to receive.

Among the inherent principles under which all nominations are judged are consistent overall business performance and success; high levels of customer satisfaction; valuing personnel and expansion and development.

Attended by senior executives from major travel companies, operators and destinations, WTA events are universally respected as providing established, top-level networking opportunities, regionally and globally.

Other winners from Malaysia includes Pan Pacific, KLIA for Asia's Leading Airport Hotel Award, Resorts World Genting for Asia's Leading Casino Resort Award and Asia's Leading Family Resort Award, Hilton Kuala Lumpur for Asia's Leading Design Hotel Award and Malaysia, Truly Asia for Asia's Leading Marketing Campaign.