ANALYSIS Middle East shines at World Travel Awards

17/01/2012 by Ian Whiteling, Joint Editor in Chief Print

A look at this year’s winners from a meetings and events angle.

Described as the Oscars for the international travel industry, the World Travel Awards (WTA) capped its latest year-long search for the world’s most successful travel and tourism brands with its Grand Final Gala Ceremony in Doha, Qatar last week.

Appropriately, the event’s location in the Middle East reflected the growing impact the region is having on global tourism, which was further supported by the award winners. Particularly interesting from a corporate meetings and events perspective, the Qatari capital Doha was voted World’s Leading Business Travel Destination and Qatar Airways named World’s Leading Airline Business Class.

“We are delighted to be honoured as the World’s Leading Business Destination by our peers in the global hospitality industry,” said Qatar Tourism Authority Chairman Ahmed Al Nuaimi. “This is a great achievement and solidifies Qatar’s premier position as a great place to do business as well as one with first class leisure, sporting and cultural attractions.”

Headline results
The most important decision-makers in global travel and tourism attended the show, which was held in partnership with Qatar Tourism Authority, at Katara Cultural Village, Doha’s ground-breaking new arts and exhibitions complex. The evening marked the culmination of a year-long search for the very best travel and tourism brands in the world, and featured the winners from WTA’s five 2011 regional heats competing head to head.

Organisations including American Express, Starwood Hotels, Lufthansa, Abercrombie & Kent, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Europcar and Incredible India walked off with top honours for their respective roles spearheading the global travel and tourism recovery. In fact, as one of the few sectors that has continued to grow throughout the downturn, it could be said that a healthy travel and tourism industry is likely to drive the overall global recovery.

India saw off the likes of London, New York, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney to win the blue riband World’s Leading Destination award in a year in that international arrivals edged closer to the target of one billion travellers by 2016.

Meanwhile, Etihad Airways continued its meteoric rise by being voted World’s Leading Airline for the third year in succession, following a milestone year that saw the UAE flag carrier continue its journey as the fastest growing airline in history. Drawing even further attention to the UAE, Abu Dhabi’s impressive new Jumeirah at Etihad Towers won the nod against the likes of Mandarin Oriental Paris, The Ritz Carlton Hong Kong, The Park Hyderabad, Hotel Missoni Edinburgh and W Hotel London to pick up the coveted World’s Leading New Hotel title.

Hotels and venues
Focusing more closely on the winners most relevant to the global meetings and events industry, on the hotel front the Grosvenor House Dubai was crowned the World's Leading Business Hotel, while InterContinental Hotels and Resorts took the World's Leading Business Hotel Group gong. Taking a trip away from the Middle East for a moment, the Hotel Radisson Royal Hotel Moscow was named the World's Leading Luxury Business Hotel, while the World’s Leading Hotel Spa Award was presented to the Mardan Spa, Mardan Palace, Antalya, Turkey. However, it seemed that the World Travel Awards could not keep away from the UAE for long, with the prestigious World's Leading Hotel award going to the Burj Al Arab, Dubai.

Unsurprisingly, the UAE dominated the corporate meetings and events venue awards. The World's Leading Meetings and Conference Centre gong went to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Centre, while the World's Leading Meetings and Conference Hotel award went to the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi. However, the World's Leading Meetings Hotel award was presented to the Swissotel Krasnye Holmy, Moscow.

Doha, Qatar: Voted World's Leading Business Travel Destination

Finally, from a destination management perspective, for the second consecutive year, Kuoni Destination Management was named the World’s Leading Destination Management Company.

“We are very happy to receive the recognition from the travel industry for the second year in a row,” said Rolf Schafroth, chief executive of Kuoni Global Travel Services. “Last year has been momentous for Kuoni Destination Management. Bringing GTA into the company has given us a richer global community and we have filled the organisation with even more talented and expert travel professionals.”

World-class pedigree
Commenting on the World Travel Awards in general, Graham Cooke, the event’s president and founder, said: “The past year has continued to challenge every strata of travel and tourism. However, our Grand Final winners have all demonstrated their world-class pedigree over this period, and are currently spearheading the global recovery of travel and tourism. In doing so, they are also reinforcing our industry’s role as one of the mainstays of the global economy.

“Qatar in particular is playing a decisive role in generating new opportunities in travel and tourism, hence our decision to host our Grand Final in Doha. More than US$100 billion worth of infrastructure is due to be completed before the 2022 Fifa World Cup,” he added.

Established 19 years ago, World Travel Awards is committed to raising the standards of customer service and overall business performance throughout the international tourism industry. The 2011 WTA nominations featured more than 5,000 companies in 1,000 categories across 162 countries. The winners were selected by more than 210,000 industry professionals and consumers worldwide.

For a full list of World Travel Award winners, visit www.worldtravelawards.com/winners

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