World Travel Awards Win Puts Belize in the Spotlight

Belize Wins Two Honours at the 22nd World Travel Awards!

Belize won two top honours at the 22nd annual World Travel Awards, firmly positioning the little country as one of the world’s most desirable travel destinations while highlighting the collaborative nature of Belize’s tourism industry, according to The Lodge at Chaa Creek.

Ambergris Caye off Belize’s Great Barrier Reef was awarded “Mexico & Central America’s Leading Destination” while the former sleepy fishing village of Placencia was recognised as “Mexico & Central America’s Leading Beach Destination” at the 2015 international awards ceremony, held this year in Bogota, Colombia.

“This was first time in the twenty-two years of the awards that Belize made the winner’s list, and to take two of the region’s most important ‘Travel Oscars’ is a significant achievement that the entire country can be proud of,” Chaa Creek co-owner and GM Lucy Fleming said.

“Since Belizean independence in 1981, Belize tourism industry stakeholders; public and private, have worked tirelessly together to promote what was once referred to as ‘Mother Nature’s Best Kept Secret’. The country is blessed with stunning landscapes, ancient Maya cultural attractions, the world’s second largest barrier reef and a beautiful Caribbean coastline, but at the end of the day it’s the people who make it all happen,” Ms Fleming added.

Established in 1993, The World Travel Awards “serves to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry,” according to the organisation’s website. In 2014, over 650,000 travel industry professionals and “high-end tourism consumers” participated in the awards voting, the organisers note.

Vice Chairman of the Belize Tourism Board’s Board of Directors, Einer Gomez, accepted the Belizean awards on behalf of the BTB. 

When accepting the award for Leading Destination, Mr Gomez thanked the people of Belize, “and all the stakeholders, who commit themselves day-in-and-day-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."

During his acceptance speech for the Leading Beach Destination award, Mr Gomez said, "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 honour to the countless stakeholders who work tirelessly to make Placencia a friendly, safe and entertaining place to visit."

Ms Fleming said that such sentiments showed the collaborative nature of tiny Belize’s tourism industry.

“I think we all realised from day one that everybody needed to work together to put what was once a relatively unknown destination on the map.  With so many attractions, from the pristine rainforests dotted with ancient Maya temples to the Caribbean coast, cayes and reef, we all supported each other and worked together to promote what we always knew was one of the world’s great travel destinations.

“And these awards show that that work has paid off, and people the world over have come to appreciate what Belize has to offer. It’s a great feeling,” Ms Fleming said.