World Travel Awards announces Europe partners

2 October 2009 - Obidos, Portugal

The prestigious World Travel Awards has three new partners for the forthcoming European Gala ceremony at the Marriott Praia D’El Rey Golf & Beach Resort, Obidos on October 17th.

The latest organisations to join forces with World Travel Awards and their hotel partner Marriott Praia D’El Rey, in bringing the European leg of the world tour to Portugal include: TAP Portugal, Turismo Do Oeste and Bom Sucesso.

This keynote event brings together hundreds of senior management and decision makers from Europe’s travel and tourism industry. It serves to reward organisations and individuals who have gone the extra mile to improve customer experience in the past 12 months.

Graham Cooke, President, World Travel Awards, described the significance of each partnership for the long established World Travel Awards programme:

“Our events would not be possible without the support of our valued partners all over the world, who help us to pay tribute to those organisations that have excelled over the past 12 months.

“These latest partnerships mean that we are better placed to ensure that this important regional event is a truly memorable evening for everyone concerned.” He added: “An association with the World Travel Awards has been known to bring long term benefits, creating instant world-wide exposure as well as endorsing such a positive message.”

Stuart Swycher, Chairman of Beltico Group, owning company of the Marriott Praia D’El Rey, commented: “We are delighted to have been chosen to host this prestigious event and are looking forward to welcoming the travel industry’s key decision makers to Portugal’s Silver Coast in October”

Graham Irwin, UK Marketing Manager, TAP Portugal commented: “TAP Portugal (UK) is delighted to support and work closely with WTA, a UK based organisation promoting all that is great about the travel industry.

“While the travel trade is being knocked by its detractors, WTA is looking to promote the industry in a worldwide basis. With TAP’s own flight services between the UK and Portugal, and beyond to South America and Africa, the airline is happy to be associated with promoting a positive message about the industry”.

Sandra Neves, Golf Board Director, Bom Sucesso – Design Resort, Leisure & Golf, commented: “Being a partner of the World Travel Awards is a step forward to achieving our goals for both the short and medium term. We endeavour to embrace good opportunities, such as partnering with this prestigious event to raise the standards at Bom Sucesso, Design Resort, Leisure & Golf and to improve guest experience by going that extra mile.”

The World Travel Awards European ceremony is set to be an enjoyable weekend of high-level networking and quality entertainment, with the World Travel Golf Tournament taking place at Bom Sucesso on October 17th, proving a unique opportunity for industry members to network with their fellow travel professionals in a relaxed setting.

The World Travel Awards Gala ceremony will take place during the evening. During this event, Europe winners will be announced and presented with their prestigious World Travel Awards trophies. There will also be a line-up of entertainment, including comedy from the well loved international comedian Bobby Davro who will host the evening. Each European regional winner will be automatically put forward for the Grand Final which will take place in London’s Mayfair on Sunday 8 November.

Longer established World Travel Award partners include Europcar, Eurostar, Virgin Atlantic, Mitt 2009, Hacienda Tres Rios, ICC Durban, South Africa Tourism, Safar Travel, Illusions online and Tourism and The Travel Foundation. Meanwhile worldwide media partners include: BBC World News, Breaking Travel News, Khaleej Times and Publituris.

The Nominations – Europe

More than 100 leading travel companies and organisations applied for nomination in this year’s World Travel Awards and supplemented by nominations from travel professionals.

There are more than 170 categories for Europe.

Air France, BMI British Midland, British Airways, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, SAS Scandiinavian Airlines and Swiss International Airlines have all been nominated in the key category of Europe’s Leading Airline.

A total of 13 of the very best hotels in the region are in the running for the title of Europe’s Leading Hotel. They are: Ciragan Palace Kempinski, Istanbul, Turkey; Donbass Palace Hotel, Ukraine; Dubrovnik Palace Hotel, Croatia; Grand Hotel Wien, Vienna, Austria; Hotel Arts, Barcelona, Spain; Hotel Cipriani, Venice, Italy; Hotel de Palais, Biarritz, France; Hotel Le Bristol, Paris, France; Kemer Resort Hotel, Kemer, Turkey; Mandarin Oriental Hotel du Rhone, Geneva, Switzerland; Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, and The Dorchester, both in London England.

Mature and rapidly emerging European destinations are juggling for position to take the coveted title of Europe’s Leading Destination. They are:
Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Crete, Dublin, Dubrovnik, Istanbul, Lisbon, London, Pafos, Paris, Prague, Czech Republic, Rome, Tallinn, Venice, Vienna and Vilnius in Lithuania.

There’s also keen competition to find Europe’s Leading Cruise Line. In the running are:

AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, Hapag Lloyd Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, P&O Cruises, Peter Deilmann Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise International and Silversea Cruises.

For the full list of nominations for Europe, including Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mediterranean, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switrzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Wales log on to Log on to www.worldtravelawards.com .

The European event in Portugal is part of a World Travel Awards Grand Tour with regional awards staged throughout the world, ending with a Grand Final at the five-star Grosvenor House, a JW Marriott hotel in London’s Mayfair on Sunday 8 November 2009.

-ends-

Notes to Editors

About World Travel Awards

• The World Travel Awards were launched in 1993 to acknowledge and recognize excellence in the world's travel and tourism industry.
• Now celebrating its 16th Anniversary, the awards are regarded as the very highest achievement that a travel product could ever hope to receive.
• 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.

Log on to www.worldtravelawards.com for regular updated information

About Praia D’El Rey Golf & Beach Resort

Praia D’El Rey, only 50 minutes North of Lisbon’s international airport, has over 250, 000 visitors a year and the 230-hectare beachfront resort is already home to 900+ international residents, who own a range of beautiful villas and townhouses spread around the golf course and overlooking the white sandy beaches.

Over the last 10 years the resort has won many awards including Portugal’s Leading Resort at the World Travel Awards (2007 and 2008), Europe’s Leading Golf Resort of the Year from the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (2007) and Homes Overseas Awards (2004, 2006 and 2008)

For more information please visit www.praia-del-rey.com or contact Sonia Dallott, Press Coordinator on +351 262 90 50 10


About TAP Portugal

TAP Portugal is a leading European airline and a member of Star Alliance. Its hub at Lisbon is a key European gateway and crossroads for Africa, North & South America, as well as serving over 37 destinations throughout Europe. TAP currently operates over 1,850 weekly flights utilising a modern fleet of 52 Airbus aircraft, in addition to 16 more aircraft operating as PGA, the European regional carrier acquired by TAP in 2007. TAP most recently joined some of its STAR alliance partners with a joint customer service and check-in facility at Heathrow Terminal 1, making it more convenient to connect flights for UK domestic flights with STAR partner, bmi.

Translate

English Spanish Portuguese Chinese (Simplified) German French Russian

Find us on

Newsletter

Subscribe to the World Travel Awards newsletter to keep up to date with our latest news.

Our other awards

World Casino Awards World Cruise Awards World Culinary Awards World Golf Awards World MICE Awards World Ski Awards World Spa Awards World Sustainable Travel & Hospitality Awards World Travel Tech Awards