BEIJING, 14 December 2007 – TravelWeeklyChina announced the 59 recipients of the 2007TravelWeekly China Industry Awards held at The Hilton Beijing in Beijing on December 14, 2007.

“2007 TravelWeeklyChina Awards mark the climax of the months of the processes of selection by our panel of judges and advisory board and voting by our readers. My hearty congratulations to all winners and finalists,” said iris Kwan, Publisher of TravelWeeklyChina and chair of the 2007 Awards Advisory Board.

“Recognition and awards are an important part of the growth of our industry, through the award, we promote excellence, professionalism and best business practices. TravelWeeklyChina Industry Award is certainly one of the best recognised and comprehensive awards in the China Tourism Industry,” Kwan cited.

TravelWeeklyChina Industry Awards honoured 59 recipients from nine main categories, specifically Accommodations, Airlines, MICE, Cruises, Destinations, Travel Agencies, Personality, Online & Technology and Marketing Promotion.

The highlight of this year’s award was the Personality Awards which acknowledged outstanding personalities and their contributions.  Mr. Fan Min, CEO of Ctrip.com was voted Agency Personality of the Year; Charlie Dang, GM of Westin Beijing Financial Street was voted Hotel Chief of the Year; and Mr. Gregor Wende, Chief Representative China of Lufthansa German Airlines, was voted Airline Chief of the Year. 

This year’s award also featured new categories in terms of geographical specialty of travel agencies in the outbound travel arena. This is in response to the booming outbound travel business in the China tourism market and to recognise individual travel supplier’s contribution to each of the specific areas.

The awards ceremony at The Hilton Beijing was attended by over 150 guests from various sectors of the industry including key executives from hotels, airlines, travel agencies and tourism boards.

Recognised as one of China’s all-embracing travel awards, TravelWeeklyChina Awards combine expert nomination and reader voting to ensure true industry merit is meted out.  Selection process starts with nominations by a distinguished panel of judges who are experts and veterans in the industry. The awardees from each category are selected based on the total number of votes garnered from TravelWeeklyChina readers and industry peers.  Members of the Advisory Board set out the nomination criteria and governed the whole nomination and voting process.  Voters cast their votes through an online system which allows convenience and easy access, while voting by category provides options for voting at voter’s own ease and area of expertise.

The competition had been very intense and some of the awardees and runner-ups were separated by only a few of votes. There were over 100,000 individual votes cast over the 59 awards from October 22 to November 23, 2007.

The TravelWeeklyChina Awards aim to be a primary source of celebrating the champions in the tourism industry. By doing this, TravelWeeklyChina believes that it is able to assess the trends and future directions of key industry players and transfer their knowledge and best practices.

Initiated in 2002, the TravelWeekly China Travel Industry Awards recognise the best in the industry and acknowledge their contributions to China’s tourism industry, both inbound and outbound.   Originally a bi-annual event, TravelWeeklyChina Travel Industry has been an annual event since 2006.

For enquiries and further information of the awards, please contact Iris Kwan at
iris.kwan@rbi-asia.com