- Not aware of allegations; 117 countries participating: State Minister
The authenticity of the World Travel Awards (WTA) to be conducted in Colombo in December has been questioned, with some international media agencies expressing uncertainty on the legitimacy of the awards.
It is alleged that the WTA has not sought to recognise the best agencies, but rather the agencies that were able to pay at least £ 650.
It is further alleged that WTA’s nominations list was short – not because of it comprising shortlisted nominees, but because those nominees were the only parties willing to pay the £ 399 or the £ 499 application fee plus the £ 299 fee requested for advertising.
Nevertheless, the WTA website claims that the awards were established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward, and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries.
Each year the World Travel Awards cover the globe with its Grand Tour – a series of regional gala ceremonies to recognise excellence within each continent, culminating with the winners going head-to-head in a Grand Final at the end of the year.
The WTA gala ceremonies are regarded as milestone events in the travel calendar, attended by the industry’s key decision-makers, figureheads, influencers, and media. The programme, its winners, and its sponsors are represented globally on social media, with fresh daily content across multiple platforms.
This year, Sri Lanka’s State Tourism Ministry has won the bid to host the WTA 2023 World Grand Finale Gala Ceremony in Colombo on 15 December with the participation of 117 countries including all the sectors of travel – hotels, tour operators, airlines, destinations, etc.
WTA Founder and President Graham Cooke and Business Development Manager Mike Sawicki arrived in Colombo recently and met with State Minister of Tourism Diana Gamage and senior officials to discuss and plan the programme of the WTA 2023 World Grand Finale Gala.
However, when contacted by The Sunday Morning, State Minister Gamage said that she was not aware of any of the allegations against the WTA and its authenticity, adding that she knew that around 117 countries were participating in the awards ceremony.
“This is a very important event for the country and its tourism industry. When we are doing something important, there are people who are trying to pull us down by bringing up various allegations,” she added.
As observed by The Sunday Morning and as mentioned on the WTA official website, any one who wishes to apply for the awards should submit their entry form online, following which it will be checked and vetted to ensure the nomination qualifies for the selected award/s.
The successful applicants will be notified and sent an invoice for the entry fee and it is noted that no fee will be charged from unsuccessful applications.
Upon payment, the nomination will be entered and the applicant will be sent the digital nominee pack which includes the nominee shield, ‘vote for us’ button, web banners, and a dedicated voting web page to market their nomination. At this point, nominations are under embargo.
Nominees will be published when voting opens and nominees may announce their nomination/s and begin any marketing campaigns, as per the website.
According to WTA’s official website, the entry fees for successful applications are £ 399 and £ 499 for country/sub-region awards and regional awards respectively.
