The eyes of the travel industry will be firmly focussed on events in Orlando, Florida this coming weekend when the World Travel Awards North American and Central American Ceremony honours the top achievers in travel.

The prestigious ceremony is on Saturday 6 September at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, immediately before ASTA’s THE TRADESHOW and Premium Member meeting.“North America is traditionally regarded by the rest of the world as a reliable industry barometer, spearheading latest developments, creating new products and improving customer experiences”, said Graham E. Cooke, President and Founder of the World Travel Awards. “It’s for this reason that the winners of these regional awards have a special significance, with long term international impact.”

“The North American industry, like many other regions of the world, certainly has its challenges, but it is in these difficult economic times that key business dynamics such as quality, value for money and innovation separates a good travel business from a world class one.”

“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 in Orlando, but at the same time there will be a very serious purpose behind the event with importance to many North American 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.

Cooke explained that it was particularly appropriate that Eurostar were the main sponsors the event because of an increasing focus on environmental issues. “This is the world’s first train operator to make all journeys carbon neutral,” he added. “Independent research has shown that a Eurostar journey between London and Paris generates one-tenth of the carbon dioxide produced by an equivalent flight. Under its Tread Lightly initiative, Eurostar has set a target of further reducing its CO2 emissions by 25% per traveller journey by 2012.”

A total of 160 North American organisations have been nominated in 23 overall categories, including airlines, airports, hotels, car hire, casino resorts, cruise lines, destinations, spas and tourist board. There are categories too for Arizona, California, Colorado, Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

The event is part of World Travel Awards Grand Tour, culminating with the final in December, which this year is being held in Turks & Caicos.
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