Belize Tourism Destinations win Travel Oscar Awards at WTA

On Sunday, October 11th, Belize was put high in the world of travelling at the 2015 World Travel Awards (WTA). The glamorous event took place in Bogota, Colombia and saw Belize taking the awards in two strong categories.

This included Ambergris Caye taking the award for Leading Destination 2015 in the Mexico and Central America category, while Placencia walked away with the award for Leading Beach Destination 2015 in the same category.

Early in August of this year, the Belize Tourism Board (BTB) announced that Belize had been nominated in four different categories for the prestigious awards. The categories included Mexico and Central America’s Leading Destination 2015 : Ambergris Caye, Mexico and Central America’s Leading Nature Reserve 2015 : Bladen Nature Reserve, Mexico and Central America’s Leading Beach Destination 2015 for both Ambergris Caye and Placencia, and Mexico and Central America’s Leading Tourist Board 2015: Belize Tourism Board.

The WTA advisory committee, which comprises of 2,700 media titles and influential tourism figureheads, took six months to come up with a short list for nominees which included Belize. When the list of nominees was made available, the global industries, as well as travel consumers, were asked to vote for whom they considered were the best in each category. Votes were limited to one person per category and its deadline was set for Monday, August 17th.

Receiving the awards for Belize was Vice Chairman of BTB Board of Directors, Einer Gomez, accompanied by his wife. When he received the award for Leading Beach Destination, Gomez took the opportunity to talk about the winning Belizean destination. “In Belize, Placencia is locally known as “barefoot perfect.” But we have more to credit than the golden sands and swaying palms for earning this award. We owe this honor to the countless stakeholders who work tirelessly to make Placencia a friendly, safe and entertaining place to visit,” stated Gomez. This was followed by the second award which was for Leading Destination. “And most importantly, thank you to the people of Belize, and all the stakeholders, who commit themselves day-in-and-out to providing quality customer service, and for welcoming travelers into our country with open arms. Your hard work and dedication to sharing Belize with the world has clearly not gone unnoticed,” ended Gomez.

The heads of tourism from all around Central America were at the event witnessing the historic moment for the tourism industry in Belize. In the 22 years history of the WTA, Belize has won the two BIGGEST Travel Oscars for the continent.

The BTB would like to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone in Belize’s Tourism Industry who has worked extremely hard to make these awards possible. It is the dedication of our Industry Partners that has put Belize in the forefront. There would not be a destination to promote if we did not have those who believe in the country and work tirelessly to ensure that guests are given the best experience possible.