Malaysia has once again made headlines by winning the much-coveted World Travel Awards in two categories, i.e. Asia's Leading Sports Tourism Destination and Asia's Leading City Destination.

The award for Asia's Leading Sports Tourism Destination is a significant recognition of Malaysia's accomplishment in organising world-class sporting events such as motor racing, badminton, golf, football, tennis, equestrian etc. Malaysia became the first Asian country after Japan to host the prestigious motor sports event with the inception of the F1PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix in 1999 and the only country in South East Asia to host the most elite motorcycle racing in the world which is the MotoGP.

The other nominees in this category were China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur won the World Travel Awards for Asia's Leading City Destination, beating other cities such as Bangkok, Hong Kong, Beijing, Mumbai, Phuket, Seoul and Shanghai.

The Deputy Director of Tourism Malaysia - Bangkok, Mr. Wizani Rosmin, received the Asia's Leading Sports Tourism Destination award on behalf of Malaysia from the Founder and President of World Travel Awards, Mr. Graham Cooke on 28 September 2011 at the World Travel Awards, Asia & Australasia Gala Awards Ceremony held in Dusit Thani Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.

The ceremony was attended by travel industry professionals, senior executives from renowned travel companies and hoteliers from Asia's leading hotels as well as media from 60 countries.

At the same event, Malaysia Airlines won awards in the Asia's Leading Airline and Asia's Leading Airline Lounge categories.

More than 50 awards were given out under the categories of airlines, hotels, resorts, villas, suites, tour operators and travel agencies, car hires, city destinations, leading destinations, sports tourism destinations, luxury trains, cruise lines and ports, MICE centres & destinations, National Tourism Organisations, travel exhibitions, travel management companies, travel merchandising solution providers and responsible tourism award for the Asia and Australasia region.

BACKGROUNDER
World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to acknowledge and celebrate excellence in all sectors of the travel and tourism industry. It has grown into the one of the most prestigious, comprehensive and sought-after awards programmes for the global travel and tourism industry. The Wall Street Journal has heralded the World Travel Awards as the "travel industry's equivalent to the Oscars".
Apart from Bangkok, this year the regional ceremonies have taken place in Dubai for Middle East region; Antalya, Turkey for Europe; Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt for Africa and Indian Ocean.
Jamaica will host the Caribbean and the Americas region on Oct 19 and the grand final will be held in Doha, Qatar at the end of the year.
The World Travel Awards nominations are decided by an independent panel of industry experts and judging criteria takes into account every aspect of the business including overall performance, product development, innovation, creativity and customer satisfaction.

For more information, visit: http://www.worldtravelawards.com.

Issued by: Communications & Publicity Division, Tourism Malaysia
Date: 10 October 2011
Tel: +603 8891 8000; Fax: +603 8891 8788
For more information, e-mail: sitirahmah@tourism.gov.my
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