Breaking Travel News

World Travel Awards winners celebrate at ITB Berlin

World Travel Awards winners celebrate at ITB Berlin

Winners of the prestigious World Travel Awards have been celebrating their success at ITB Berlin, with Leading Hotels of the World chief among them.

The group – which picked up the award for World’s Leading Hotel Alliance at the WTA Grand Final in November – was celebrating alongside proprietors from family owned hotels within the chain. 

Assessing the year so far Chief Executive Officer Ted Teng - pictured - told Breaking Travel News: “We continue to focus on our core business – improving quality and increasing revenue to our hotel members.

“As a result of our efforts we generated 15 per cent more in room revenue compared to last year, in spite of reducing our hotel inventory by four per cent.

Mr Teng marked a major milestone recently when he unveiled the company’s first new logo since its inception, while a new the Leading Hotels of the World directory has been completely redesigned ahead of 2011.

The chairmanship of the organisation has also recently passed from Jean-Jacques Gauer, who had been at the helm since 1990, to Andrea Kracht, vice chairman and proprietor of the legendary Baur au Lac in Zurich, Switzerland.


TDIC Abu Dhabi director of operations, Simon Venison, meets Breaking Travel News at ITB Berlin

Middle East

Moving into the Middle East, Breaking Travel News caught a few moments with Simon Venison, director of operations at TDIC Abu Dhabi.

With reference to the awarding winning Saadiyat Island development in the Emirate he enthused: “We are creating a totally unique destination, with the Guggenheim, Louvre and Zayed National Museum.

These are all iconic buildings and are located so close together you can visit the museums and then lie on the beaches in the afternoon or visit the Ferrari World theme park.”

Check out our video interview with Simon here.


Peter Baumgartner, chief operating officer at Etihad Airways, joins Breaking Travel News at ITB Berlin

Etihad – which has become one of the driving forces behind the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix – was also presenting its offering at ITB Berlin this year.

Chief operating office Peter Baumgartner discussed the importance of the World Travel Awards with Breaking Travel News here, with the airline having been recognised as the World’s Leading Airline for the second consecutive year in 2010.

Etihad has also been making headlines recently, announcing it will double its flight frequency between Manchester and Abu Dhabi from August 1st this year from seven to 14 flights each week.

Baumgartner explained: “The frequency increase illustrates how Etihad has firmly established itself in the north-west of England and that we are now the airline of choice for business and leisure travellers, whether flying to Abu Dhabi or transferring through to destinations in the east, such as Australia, Thailand and Japan.”


Jehan de Thé, global marketing director at Europcar, celebrates at ITB Berlin 2011

Europe

Finally, Breaking Travel News caught up with Europcar global marketing director, Jehan de The, as he celebrated World Travel Awards recognition as the World’s Leading Green Transport Solution Company in 2010.

He explained: “We are truly proud to receive these awards once again.

“They represent industry recognition of our approach to environmental protection.

“They also confirm our role as a pioneer in raising awareness among our customers, in enhancing our service offering and in expanding our fleet of environmentally friendly vehicles.”

Europcar also won a clutch of other awards, including World’s Leading Car Hire and World’s Leading Leisure Car Rental Company.