CTW Awards 2016 held in Beijing: Achievements of 17 Chinese Outbound Tourism Industry Players recognised

On April 13^th 2016, the Chinese Tourist Welcome Award (CTW Award) ceremony took place at Beijing’s China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM) exhibition, the only business-to-business event that focuses purely on the burgeoning outbound market in China.

The Chinese Tourist Welcome Award (CTW Award) has been coordinated by the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) since 2004. The awards are regarded both internationally and in China as the leading recognition of excellence for those working in the Chinese outbound tourism market.

For the 13^th time, the international jury received a large amount of applications this year, reflecting a continuously rapid development of the Chinese Outbound Travel Market. As has happened at past events, the CTW Awards were handed out during a presentation for the selected winners, some of whom had travelled a long way to Beijing especially for the CTW Award ceremony. Similarly to previous years, gold, silver and bronze prizes were awarded in five categories: Product Innovation, Internet/Media, Service Quality, Marketing and Overall Performance.

This year’s winners reflected a comprehensive range of different business fields specialised in the Chinese Outbound Market from the wider international tourism industry. In acknowledgement of their highly commendable services tailored to Chinese visitors, the tourism professionals honoured with a Chinese Welcome Award ranged from tour, activity and hotel operators, travel destination representatives, and even digital travel platforms. Furthermore, a skiing company and a transport travel company were also included.

Commenting on the gold prize awarded to English Premier League football club Manchester City, COTRI director and chair of the CTW Award Ceremony said:  “Manchester City is the first football club among the CTW award receivers since it started in 2004 at ITB Berlin. Their special offers for Chinese visitors certainly differ from the homestay products with rural Bangladeshi families or the jointly developed itineraries of the China-CEEC project in Eastern and Central Europe. However, all of them together reflect the variety of different parts of the Chinese outbound market.”

A full list of winners can be found below.

Product Innovation:

Journey Plus (Bangladesh) – Bronze

Hunt USA – Silver

Dart River (New Zealand) – Gold

Service Quality: 

Hullu Poro Group (Finland) – Bronze

Solihull Tourism Forum (UK) – Silver

VisitBritain & VisitEngland – Gold

Marketing:

Speedbird Safaris (Kenya) – Bronze

Aspen Snowmass (USA) – Silver

Wonderful Indonesia – Gold

Georgian National Tourism Administration – Gold

Internet/Media:

Oskar (Poland) – Bronze

Else Globe (Australia) – Silver

Dragon Trail (China) – Gold

Overall Performance: 

Guam Visitors Bureau – Bronze

China – CEEC Tourism Coordination Centre (Hungary) – Silver

Egyptian Embassy in China Tourism Office – Silver

Manchester City Football Club (UK) – Gold

Source：Travel Daily News

Picture: COTRI