Travel Partner News: TTG Asia Travel Awards

Twenty one of 79 winning organisations and individuals at The 22nd Annual TTG Travel Awards 2011 took home the signature Hermes trophy for the first time at the yearly regional event organised by TTG Asia Media’s Publishing Group.

A total of 49,000 votes were cast by readers of the five TTG publications. Readers of the relevant industry sectors named their organisation of choice for each title in both online and print voting forms inserted into publications.

Among new winners were Shangri-la Singapore and Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, best hotels in Singapore and Bangkok respectively.

Resorts World at Sentosa Pte Ltd took the title of Best Integrated Resort for the first time, as Seoul beat long-standing competitors Singapore and Shanghai for the first time to become Best BT-MICE City.

Notably, The Peninsula Tokyo took the Best City Hotel – Tokyo title only three years after winning the Best New City Hotel in 2008.

This year, Lotte Tour became the first travel agency to be inducted into the Travel Hall of Fame after winning the Best Travel Agency – Korea for 10 years running.

Fourteen out of last year’s 24 new winners kept hold of their titles, including Centara Grand at CentralWorld as Best Meetings & Conventions Hotel and InterContinental Manila, the Best City Hotel in Manila.

Besides Air India, which was replaced by Kingfisher Airlines as Best South Asian Airline, previous year’s winners in the airline segment continue their reign this year.

“The travel awards have been designed to mirror industry trends,” said Darren Ng, TTG Asia Media’s Managing Director. “It is important for industry players to note the shifts in tastes of their clientele, as well as the direction their competitors are taking to distinguish themselves as outstanding.”

Thailand’s presence in the Asia-Pacific MICE scene was clear in this year’s awards. Grand Hyatt Erawan was voted Best Business Hotel this year after winning the Best Bangkok Hotel for the past three years.

It was just one of the four companies from Thailand that had won prizes in the BT-MICE segment: these included Thai Airways for the Best Airline – Business Class, Centara Grand at Centralworld for Best Meetings & Conventions Hotel, and the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau for Best Convention & Exhibition Bureau.

Thai Airways showed it had more strengths than just MICE, and was one of the two companies that won more than one award with its Best South-East Asian Airline win.

Best Western International was the other double winner, winning both the Best Mid-Range Hotel Brand and Best Marketing & Development Effort titles.

In addition to the Best Marketing & Development Effort title, TTG Publishing’s editorial team handpicked three other outstanding achievers in the category.

Shao Qiwei, chairman of the Chinese National Tourism Administration, was Travel Personality of the Year for being proactive and innovative in developing the industry. Singapore was crowned Destination of the Year for the second year running, and Cox & Kings became the Most Entrepreneurial Travel Company.

The 22nd Annual TTG Travel Awards 2011 Ceremony and Gala Dinner is held yearly in Bangkok, in conjunction with Incentive Travel & Conventions, Meetings Asia and Corporate Travel World (IT&CMA and CTW).