Earning recognition

A HANDFUL of Malaysian brands and companies have been listed as winners in the Asia division of the 29th World Travel Awards (WTA). Some of the companies that received accolades include national carrier Malaysia Airlines, lowcost carrier Airasia and One World Hotel.

This year’s awards were divided into these sections: Asia, Caribbean, Central America, North America, Oceania, South America, Africa, Europe, Indian Ocean and Middle East.

Winners for the Asia and Oceania divisions were announced during a gala ceremony on Sept 7 in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, while winners in the Caribbean and the Americas divisions received their awards in a gala in Jamaica on Aug 31.

Another three galas are scheduled to be held later this month and in October.

Established in 1993, the WTA was created by Graham Cooke to reward and celebrate excellence across the various sectors within the travel industry. It is an internationally-recognised award.

Last year, despite the pandemic, as many as 2.3 million votes were cast for the 2022 list, a record in WTA’S 29-year history. This is a very encouraging turn out, particularly for those in the tourism industry. The votes are from qualified executives working within the industry, as well as the consumer travel buyer.

Malaysia garnered six awards in total.

Malaysia Airlines took home the Leading Airline (Business Class) award, while Airasia won the Leading Low-cost Airline award and also the Leading Low-cost Airline Cabin Crew award.

Meanwhile, the company’s Tune Hotel KLIA-KLIA2, was named the Leading Airport Hotel in Asia.

Another award went to One World Hotel for Leading Meetings & Conference Hotel, while Pangkor Laut Resort bagged the Leading Water Villa Resort award.

Neighbouring country Singapore also won a handful of awards, most notably the Leading Airline and Leading Airport awards for Singapore Airlines and Singapore Changi Airport, respectively.

Osaka, Japan takes home the Leading Emerging Tourism Destination award, despite the city being one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions for years.

Vietnam, home to beautiful reserves like the Can Gio Mangrove Forest, Cat Tien National Park, the Red River Delta and Western Nghe An, was named Asia’s Leading Nature Destination.

Cambodia won its first ever awards in the WTA for Leading Cultural Destination and Leading Youth Travel Destination.

One of the world’s largest online travel booking platform with over 400 million users, Trip.com, was awarded Asia’s Leading Online