World's Most Hygienic Hotel

The Sunwing Sandy Bay Hotel in Cyprus has been named the world's most hygienic hotel by Check Safety First.

The award is for maintaining exceptional level of hygiene. Hotels vying for the award are monitored monthly by ad-hoc independent audits. What impressed the jury about The Sunwing Sandy Bay Hotel was the attention paid to even minute detail.

The Check Safety First Cristal Awards also recognize the highest scoring hotel from each country. The national winners are as follows. Check Safety First is a member of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's 'Know Before You Go' campaign and an ABTA Travel partner.

Croatia - Iberostar Epidaurus
Czech Republic - Barceló Praha
Dominican Republic - Amhsa - Marine Grand Paradise
Egypt - Hyatt Regency Sharm
Germany - Barceló Cologne City Centre
Jamaica - Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica
Jordan - Four Seasons Amman
Mexico -Barceló Maya
Montenegro - Iberostar Bellevue
Morocco - Hotel and Ryads Naoura Barriere
Saudi Arabia - Crowne Plaza
Spain - Sunwing Arguineguin
Syria - Four Seasons Damascus
Thailand - Sunwing Bangtao Beach Resort
Tunisia - Hotel Husdrubal Hammamet
Turkey - Pasha Bay

Gapadventures.com recognized as the best-designed website in the travel industry

Gapadventures.com has been recognized as the best-designed website in the travel industry. The selection was made by online trade publication TravelMole.com.
  
The winners were selected by a respected panel of judges including Water & Strone founder Ric Shreves, GoQuo founder Ron Ramanan, Oneglobe Network principal Liz Craig and Forumline.com owner Meraj Huda.


The award was presented to Gap Adventures at the TravelMole Web Innovation Awards in Singapore last week. TravelMole Web Innovation Awards seek to recognize companies leading the travel industry.

Auckland Airport is The Overall Winner of 8th Routes Asia Award in Marketing

Auckland Airport has won the internationally accredited Routes Airport Marketing Award. The awards were presented at the gala dinner of the 8th Routes Asia held in Adelaide, Australia.  This is the only award based purely on rewarding excellence in route development and nominated only by airlines.

Research activities aiming to help airlines meet their marketing goals and strong online presence were major plus points that went in favour  of Auckland Airport. The airport will now be automatically entered into the shortlist for the Routes World Airport Marketing Awards, to be held at World Routes in Vancouver in September.

Here is the full list of winners

Middle East
Winner: King Fahd International Airport (Saudi Arabia)
South East Asia
Winner: Singapore Changi International Airport (Singapore)
Oceania
Winner: Auckland Airport (New Zealand)
China & North East Asia
Winner: Incheon International Airport (South Korea)
Indian Sub Continent
Winner: Hyderabad International Airport (India)

Overall winner: Auckland Airport.

Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award

The other day Sam my friend from Wynad,  requested me to post the details of Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award. Sam says several people have missed the details. So guys, here it comes.

The Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award is a collaborative effort between the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the leading ecotourism / responsible travel web portal Planeta.com with support of the Heidehof Foundation.

The competition is meant to showcase the contribution of indigenous tour operators to biological and cultural diversity. The applicants for 2010 award came from Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mexico, Micronesia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sweden. A jury composed of six internationally recognized experts in indigenous and sustainable tourism picked the winners.

The winner of the 2010 Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award is Nutti Sami Siida, which features reindeer sled trips. The site is owned by Nils Torbjörn Nutti and Carina Pingi. Both of them are Sami from Gabna Sameby, Sweden.

How to Score Deals on Europe's Budget Airlines

The other day I was reading a good piece of writing on scoring deals with European budget Airlines authored by Susan MacCallum-Whitcomb. 


Susan gives some level headed advice on how to get those wonderful deals. She also narrates the pitfalls associated with the deals. For example many budget carriers use less popular airports. Stansted Airport, for example, is about 40 miles from central London; Skavsta is 50 from Stockholm and Reus near Barcelona 68 miles away. But there are excellent buses that takes care of your needs. The dollops of advice is worth a read.


I found the article very very useful Read it here

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Awards

Have a look at the finalist of  The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) awards.The winners will be revealed on May 26th.

Destination Stewardship Award:
• Botswana Tourism Board - www.botswanatourism.co.bw, Country of
• Montenegro, Ministry of Tourism - www.montenegro.travel
• Mount Huangshan Scenic Site, China - www.chinahuangshan.gov.cn

Conservation Award
• Emirates Hotels & Resorts, UAE - www.emirateshotelsresorts.com
• Inkaterra Perú SAC - www.inkaterra.com
• Singita Grumeti Reserves, Tanzania - www.singita.com

Community Benefit Award
• Namibia's Communal Conservancy Tourism Sector / NACSO -www.nacso.org.na
• Tourindia, India - www.tourindiakerala.com
• Whale Watch Kaikoura Ltd, New Zealand - www.whalewatch.co.nz

Global Tourism Business Award
• Accor, France & Global - www.accor.com
• Banyan Tree Holdings, Singapore & Global - www.banyantree.com
• Wilderness Safaris, South Africa & Global - www.wilderness-safaris.com

New Global Online Contest from Gap Adventures

Gap Adventures has just launched a new global online contest for travelers from every walk of life to submit a trip idea on the web. It gives you a chance to get your trip published by Gap and take the journey to boot, along with two lucky friends. This could be a trip to anywhere in the world.

 The winner will be selected through public online polling and input from a panel of world-renowned judges which includes Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler, filmmaker and adventurer Celine Cousteau, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, National Geographic Adventure Magazine editor-in-chief John Rasmus, explorer and BBC presenter Benedict Allen, Outside Magazine executive editor Mike Roberts, adventurer Alastair Humphreys, polar explorer and author Tom Avery, and Gap Adventures’ Bruce Poon Tip.Winners will be announced May 25, 2010.

 To participate log on to www.createyourownadventure.com before March 31^st

British Airways Picks Top Ten Travel Destinations for 2010

Here is the list of what British Airways perceives to be the top 10 outbound travel destinations for 2010.

1. Cape Town, South Africa
2. Istanbul, Turkey
3. Las Vegas, USA.
4. Vancouver, Canada
5. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
6. Dubrovnik, Croatia
7. New York, USA
8. Stockholm, Sweden
9. Maldives
10. New Delhi, India

Packing Light

While travelling packing light is a great idea. Packing light saves time (e.g. no waiting for baggage to be unloaded), money (no excess baggage fees), stress (no worrying about lost luggage) and the environment (less luggage means less fuel used to carry it). Go green travel has come up with 45 tips for the eco-conscious traveler. I found it practical and very useful. Read it here

World's Top 50 Ecolodges

I just had a look at the pick of top 50 ecolodges of the world done by  National Geographic adventure.  National Geographic presents  the most comprehensive ecolodge survey ever assembled, representing diverse landscapes and locales. All that you  have to do is to click on the dots on the map to find your green adventure. Really informative. Click here to go to the map and experience the adventure.