Travel industry ‘Oscars’ honour the best in world travel and tourism

The World Travel Awards, considered by some to be the ‘Oscars of the travel industry’ took place in Doha, Qatar, this week and recognised excellence in customer relations, service, and business acumen.

Abu Dhabi proved to be one of the big winners on the night with the Emirates Palace collecting two awards for the World's Leading Meetings and Conferences Hotel, and World Leading Presidential Suite; and Etihad Airways was announced as the World’s Leading Airline for the third consecutive year.

2011 highlights for Etihad included the launch of seven new international routes, a move into operating profitability and in a landmark deal, the purchase of a 29.2 per cent stake in Air Berlin.

The Abu Dhabi airline also received awards for the world's leading first class and world's leading airline to the Middle East.

Another major winner was Qatar, as Doha scooped the award for World’s Leading Business Travel Destination, and Qatar Airways was named World’s Leading Airline Business Class.

Attended by the most important decision-makers in global travel and tourism, the glittering awards ceremony was held in Doha’s Katara Cultural Village and marked the end of a year-long search for the very best travel and tourism brands in the world.

Graham E. Cooke, President and Founder of the World Travel Awards, said: “The past year has continued to challenge every strata of travel and tourism. However, our Grand Final winners have all demonstrated their world-class pedigree over this period and are currently spearheading a global recovery.

“In doing so they are also reinforcing our industry’s role as one of the mainstays of the global economy.”

Established 20 years ago, the 2012 World Travel Awards winners were chosen by 210,000 industry professionals from a field of more than 5,000 companies in 1,000 categories across 162 countries.