Africa’s Time To Shine - Travel Industry "Oscars" Return to South Africa

March 27, 2009 - PRLog -- Co-located alongside INDABA and in partnership with the ICC Durban and South African Tourism, the leading industry bodies, government representatives and the world’s media will gather to discover which travel and tourism companies have been voted Africa's very best.

Since 1993, “the Oscars of the travel industry” have stood unrivalled in impartially recognising and rewarding those who set the standards across all sectors of travel and tourism.  This year's World Travel Awards are more important than ever before as the winners will demonstrate what it truly takes to make a difference and will act as beacons of hope for the rest of the industry.

The winners will spotlight the very best overall African travel companies, operators, hotels, resorts and destinations as well as honour the leading hotels in Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“This is an opportunity for Africa to demonstrate supreme excellence at the highest level”, said Graham E Cooke President and Founder of World Travel Awards.

“These awards are the most prestigious and highly coveted in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry in Africa”, he added. “They are awarded to businesses that have demonstrated their willingness to pursue best practice in every aspect of their operation, increasing their efficiency as well as their profits.

“The over riding objective of the World Travel Awards is to encourage and stimulate business excellence within the international travel and tourism industry. There is no doubt that this will be a glitzy and exciting evening, but at the same time there will be a very serious purpose behind the event with importance to many African businesses.

“Winning one of the awards not only brings a travel company or destination acknowledgement and respect from the global industry, but also offer valuable commercial and profiling benefits that can filter down to the bottom line” he continued.

The World Travel Awards have partnered with influential global media partners such as BBC World, Explore South Africa, Travel Daily News International, Travel and Leisure China, eTurboNews and Publituris.

To not miss out on this prestigious event make sure you secure a place by contacting World Travel Awards on bookings@worldtravelawards.com.

The Africa event is part of a World Travel Awards Grand Tour with regional awards staged throughout the world, ending with a Grand Final in Jamaica at the end of the year.

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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.
•   Thousands of votes are cast by travel professionals from 167,000 travel agencies, tour and transport companies and tourism organizations in over 160 countries across the globe.
•   Votes are cast globally by fellow industry professionals in 919 different categories.
•   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


For further press information please contact Cristina Onodi at:
T: +44 (0)2078725643
E:cristina.onodi@worldtravelawards.com

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The World Travel Awards, also referred to as the “Oscars of the travel industry” by the Wall Street Journal, cover the entire travel sector. Results are based on an independent vote by 167′000 travel agents and tourism experts in over 200 countries.