Durban to host World Travel Awards
Suren Naidoo
14 April 2008
Durban's showpiece International Convention Centre has scored another major coup - the African leg of the prestigious World Travel Awards (WTA) is to be hosted at the centre in May.
The WTA Africa Awards will take place during South Africa's annual Tourism Indaba. The biggest travel trade show on the continent, the Tourism Indaba attracted more than 12 000 participants last year.
"We are thrilled to be bringing the WTA to Durban," Graham Cooke, the president and founder of the World Travel Awards, said from London last week. "As travel industry professionals, we are familiar with Indaba, and there is not another event in Africa that we would rather have hosting the Awards.
"Indaba's ancestral home is Durban, and having such a fabulous event in such an amazing city is a rare opportunity for us all."
The WTA, described by the Wall Street Journal as the "Oscars of the global travel industry", has been acknowledging leading travel products around the globe for 15 years.
The Africa Awards are part of the WTA's 2008 Grand Tour initiative, which seeks to recognise winners in their own territory through regional award ceremonies that celebrate both individual successes and the achievements of the industry.
Other continental hosts will include Sydney for the Australasia awards, Orlando for the North and Central Americas, Crete (Europe), Rio de Janeiro (South America) and Abu Dhabi (Middle East). The Asia venue has yet to be announced.
The World Travel Awards 2008 will culminate in a spectacular grand finale, to honour the travel industry's very best, in the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos in December.
This article was first published in The Mercury.
