Coast beach resorts bag top awards in Africa
What you need to know:
- Diani Beach on the Kenyan coast has been voted the best beach destination in Africa.
- In what will come as welcome news to the beleaguered tourism industry, the Kenya Tourism Board was also named Africa’s leading tourist board in the rankings released on September 5.
- A similar honour went to the Sarova Shaba Game Lodge in Samburu, northern Kenya, which was voted Africa’s leading eco-lodge and the world famous Masai Mara whichwas lauded as Africa’s leading national park.
- Kenya Airways, which recently promoted Mr Mbuvi Nguze to succeed Mr Titus Naikuni as its Chief Executive Officer next month, was voted the best airline in Africa in the business class category.
Diani Beach on the Kenyan coast has been voted the best beach destination in Africa.
The annual awards, which have been described as “the Oscars of the travel industry”, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry.
The recognition, during the 21st World Travel Awards, comes amid calls by players in the tourism sector for the United Kingdom to consider reviewing travel bans on Mombasa after security in the Coast region was restored.
Another winner from the Coast region was the Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort & Spa, which was voted as the continent’s leading eco-hotel.
A similar honour went to the Sarova Shaba Game Lodge in Samburu, northern Kenya, which was voted Africa’s leading eco-lodge and the world famous Masai Mara which was lauded as Africa’s leading national park.
The Leopard Beach Resort & Spa in Diani was also voted Africa’s leading spa resort. This was the second year in a row that the resort has won the award. The establishment was also voted Kenya’s leading beach resort.
On its website, the management described the victory as “an endorsement from thousands of professionals from around the globe, as well as a promise to our valued guests of travel excellence guaranteed”.
AFRICA'S LEADING TOURIST BOARD
In what will come as welcome news to the beleaguered tourism industry, the Kenya Tourism Board was also named Africa’s leading tourist board in the rankings released on September 5.
This is the third time in a row that Kenya has defended that title despite stiff competition from countries like South Africa whose tourist attractions had a strong showing in this year’s awards.
Kenya Airways, which recently promoted Mr Mbuvi Nguze to succeed Mr Titus Naikuni as its Chief Executive Officer next month, was voted the best airline in Africa in the business class category.
World Travel Awards President Graham Cooke had this to say about this year’s nominees: “We saw an incredibly rich, diverse and inspirational selection of nominees in Africa and Indian Ocean in 2014, with many top competitors fighting it out in a series of very close races”.
In the safari camp segment, Gamewatchers Safaris and Porini Camps were named as the top performers in the continent. Porini manages exclusive safaris and has camps in the Mara and Amboseli parks and also runs camps in conservancies such as Ol Pejeta.
Twiga Tours and Abercrombie & Kent rounded up the Kenyan companies that emerged tops in the continent in the responsible tourism and luxury safaris categories.
In all, Kenya tied with South Africa with highest number of winning tourism companies in Africa, at 17 while Morocco had 14, followed by Nigeria with eight.
