Portugal nets 30 ‘oscars’ at the World Travel Awards 2022
Portugal scooped 30 awards at the European edition of the ‘oscars’ of the travel industry – World Travel Awards, including Best Destination.
After losing the title of Best Destination in Europe to Greece last year after four consecutive victories, Portugal has again been elected the Best Destination in Europe at a gala awards ceremony which took place in Mallorca in Spain.
Porto was the Best City Destination in Europe for 2022 and the Algarve was once again Best Beach Destination in Europe, while Azores were once again the Best Adventure Tourism Destination in Europe.
Lisbon picked up four awards: Best City Break Destination, Best Metropolitan Coastal Destination, Best Cruise Ship Destination and Best Cruise Ship Port.
The wooden scenic pathways, Passadiços do Paiva in Arouca was voted the Best Tourism Attraction and the Best Adventure Tourism Attraction; while the Dark Sky Alqueva once again netted the award as Best Responsible Tourism Attraction.
Tourism de Portugal was again elected the Best Tourism Body, airline TAP was the Best Airline to Africa and to South America.
Amazing Evolution was voted the Best Boutique Hotel Operator and also won the Best Hotel Management Company, reinforcing its leadership position, responsible for the management of over ten hotels in Portugal.
In the hotel sector 14 awards went to Portuguese hotels: Pestana Porto Santo (Best All-Inclusive Resort), Pestana Alvor Praia (Best Beach Hotel), 1908 Lisboa Hotel (Best Design Hotel), Vila Baleira Resort (Best Island Resort), Vila Galé Collection Braga (Best Monumental Hotel), Pine Cliffs (Best Leisure Resort), Pestana CR7 Lisbon (Best Lifestyle Hotel), Conrad Algarve (Best Lifestyle Resort), Valverde Hotel (Best Luxury Boutique Hotel), Domes Lake Algarve (Best New Resort), Cascade Wellness Resort (Best Sport Resort), Dunas Douradas Beach Club (Best Villa Resort), L’AND Vineyards (Best Hotel in a Wine Region) and Monte Santo Resort (Best Romantic Resort).
World Travel Awards™ supports, promotes and develops the global travel and tourism industry by identifying and rewarding excellence and inspiring its practitioners to continually raise the standards of their product and service offering.
Each year, WTA runs and governs a comprehensive programme across a range of awards developed to recognise the industry’s most vital sectors and product offerings.
Awards are presented across three tiers: country, regional and world awards.
World Travel Awards™ was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. Today, the World Travel Awards™ brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of industry excellence.
World Travel Awards™ celebrates its 29th anniversary year in 2022. Its annual programme is renowned as the most prestigious and comprehensive in the global industry. Each year World Travel Awards™ covers the globe with its Grand Tour – a series of regional gala ceremonies to recognise excellence within each continent, culminating in a Grand Final at the end of the year.
World Travel Awards has come under criticism over the years for presenting itself as a brand that endorses Travel brands while receiving payments that are accounted for as though they are nomination fees. This does not imply that it endorses fake companies, rather the criticism is that its ‘entries’ do not present all the best agencies a given destination has to offer, and therefore cannot be viewed a wholly impartial and independent.