Janet Silvera, Gleaner Writer
The proud Jamaican team at the World Travel Awards in London, England, (from left); Senator Noel Sloley, board member of Air Jamaica; O.K. Melhado, the airline's chairman, holding the 'Leading Caribbean Airline Trophy'; Paul Pennicook, director of tourism; Aloun Assamba, Minister of Industry and Tourism, holding the 'Leading Tourist and Conventions Bureau Trophy'; Rosalie Donaldson, senior vice-president, international marketing and client service at the Port Authority of Jamaica, with 'Leading Caribbean Cruise Destination Award' and William Tatham, vice-president of cruise shipping and marina operations. - PHOTO BY JANET SILVERA
LONDON, England:
JAMAICA TOOK centre stage at the World Travel Awards in London yesterday.
The island pocketed the coveted Caribbean Cruise Destination, Leading Tourist and Conventions Bureau and the region's Top Airline awards. The Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), the Jamaica Tourist Board and the national airline, Air Jamaica, were the proud recipients.
Considered the world's most comprehensive travel awards, each year over 160,000 travel agencies and professionals in over 140 countries vote to recognise excellence in travel destinations, airlines, hotels and companies worldwide.
This year there were 3,500 nominees and more than two million individuals voted using the online ballot system.
Both Air Jamaica and the Jamaica Tourist Board are not strangers to the World Travel Awards, having won on several other occasions, but this is the first time in the 12 years of the event that the Port Authority has upstaged the other cruise destinations in the region.
"We have positioned Jamaica as a complete destination, offering an outstanding range of experiences that cannot be had anywhere else in the Caribbean," Rosalie Donaldson, senior vice-president of international marketing and client service of the PAJ, told The Gleaner after collecting the trophy.
In the past five years, the PAJ has spent over $100 million improving the island's cruise ship facilities which received over 1.08million passengers in 2004 and over 800,000 in the past nine months.
"This award honours the contribution of all our industry partners; it is the collective effort between the Port Authority and the private sector that has brought us this far," added Mrs. Donaldson.
Minister of Industry and Tourism, Aloun Assamba, who was on hand to receive the JTB award noted that the three entities were government run institutions. "And they work very well with the private sector, which speaks to the level of partnership between the two."
Air Jamaica's new chairman, O.K. Melhado, was elated. According to him the the airline's award is proven recognition by the travel agents on the importance of Air Jamaica to the industry.
Jamaica lost the much sought-after Caribbean Leading Destination Award to Barbados again this year. That country also also won the World's Leading Honeymoon Award.
The island has made significant ground with the individual honours bestowed upon the Round Hill Hotel which copped two prizes for Caribbean's Leading Villa Hotel and Jamaica's Leading Spa.
The elegant Half Moon Montego Bay was voted both the Caribbean's and Jamaica's Leading Golf Resort, while Sandals Royal Plantation Ocho Rios won Jamaica's Leading Resort and Beaches Negril the Caribbean's Leading Family All-inclusive.
The Caribbean which depends heavily on income from tourism also picked up the 'World's Leading Beach' award which went to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, and Tobago Main Ridge Rain Forest grabbed the 'World's Leading Ecotourism Destination'.
