Gold Coast’s Sandra Passaro awarded top accolade
Gold Coast Tourism Director Business Tourism, Sandra Passaro, has been awarded the highest honour of business tourism recognition across the entire Asia Pacific region, by being named ‘Industry Person of the Year – Asia Pacific’ at the prestigious AIME Gala Dinner last week.
As part of a new AIME best industry practice awards programme, the inaugural ‘Industry Person of the Year’ award recognises the outstanding achievements and commitment to the industry, with Sandra being was nominated through a voting process by her colleagues, industry peers and customers for constantly going above and beyond the call of duty and for her innovative approach and outstanding contribution to the industry during the 2005/2006 financial year.
Gold Coast Tourism CEO, Pavan Bhatia expressed his deep pride in Sandra’s achievement, saying, “Sandra is one of the industry founders in attracting meetings and incentive groups to the Gold Coast region, is the longest standing employee at Gold Coast Tourism and is highly regarded across the Asia Pacific region for her commitment to the sustained growth of the Gold Coast business tourism sector”.
He added, “As the head of the business tourism team, Sandra has been successful in reinforcing conference or incentive programs on both a national and international basis that provide unique and out of the ordinary experiences, and in doing so she has done both Gold Coast Tourism and the Gold Coast proud”.
“As we endeavour to become a significant player in the Business Tourism world, Sandra’s individual recognition as ‘Industry Person of the Year – Asia Pacific’ is testament to the fact that we have the right personnel on board – after all, our people speak volumes about the spirit of our destination and that resonates through our people”.
Sandra has been involved in the tourism industry for more than 19 years and in her current role is responsible for overseeing the marketing of the destination on both a national and international basis for the business tourism sector. Prior to working at Gold Coast Tourism, Sandra held positions at Dreamworld and Tourism Queensland.
Report by The Mole
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