NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (WTM London) The TreadRight Foundation, Tusk Trust, and Wildscreen were presented with the 2015 World Tourism Awards on November 2, 2015, the opening day of World Travel Market in London. Peter Greenberg, CBS News Travel Editor and world renowned travel expert, hosted the Awards presentation.
The World Tourism Awards, celebrating its 18th Anniversary, are co-sponsored by Corinthia Hotels, The New York Times, United Airlines and Reed Travel Exhibitions. Inaugurated in 1997, the World Tourism Awards were established to recognise "individuals, companies, organisations, destinations and attractions for outstanding initiatives related to the travel and tourism industry, and in fostering sustainable tourism and developing programmes that give back to local communities."
The distinguished 2015 Honourees were recognised for their commitment to conservation, sustainable tourism development, creating unique initiatives to bring these stories to people through photography and film.
Presenting the Awards on behalf of the sponsors were Fiona Harris, Director of International PR, Corinthia Hotels; Patrick Falconer, Managing Director – UK, The New York Times; Bob Schumacher, Managing Director Sales, UK and Ireland, United Airlines; and Kate Macbeth, Head of Marketing & Communications, WTM Portfolio, Reed Travel Exhibitions.
The first award honoured The TreadRight Foundation: "a not-for-profit established by The Travel Corporation's family of brands, in recognition of its mission to promote sustainable travel through conservation, leadership, and education. To date, TreadRight has supported more than 35 sustainable tourism projects worldwide." Accepting the Award on behalf of The TreadRight Foundation were Brett Tollman, CEO, The Travel Corporation; with Céline Cousteau, TreadRight Ambassador and David Hosking, Director, TreadRight Foundation.
The second award honoured Tusk Trust: "in recognition of its mission to initiate and fund wildlife conservation, community development and environmental education programmes across Africa as the charity celebrates its 25th anniversary this year." Accepting the Award on behalf of Tusk Trust was Charlie Mayhew MBE, CEO, Tusk Trust.
The third award honoured Wildscreen: "in recognition of its mission to encourage everyone to experience the natural world and help to protect it. Wildscreen convenes the world's best photographers and filmmakers with conservationists, creating the most compelling stories about the natural world." Accepting the Award on behalf of Wildscreen was Kathaleen Hanna, Wildscreen Trustee joined by Lucie Muir, Wildscreen Director.
The World Tourism Award itself, Inspire, was specially designed and handcrafted on the Mediterranean Island of Malta by Mdina Glass, and celebrates the qualities of leadership and vision that inspire others to reach new heights.
About The World Tourism Awards
The World Tourism Awards, celebrating its 18th Anniversary, are presented annually at World Travel Market London and sponsored by Corinthia Hotels, The New York Times, United Airlines and Reed Travel Exhibitions. It was inaugurated to "recognize individuals, companies, organisations, destinations and attractions for outstanding initiatives related to the travel and tourism industry, and in fostering sustainable tourism and developing programmes that give back to local communities."
About World Travel Market London
WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 51,500 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL - London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM London, now in its 36th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals. WTM 2014 will generate around £2.5 billion of travel industry contracts.
WTM London is part of Reed Travel Exhibition's World Travel Market events, which also includes Arabian Travel Market, World Travel Market Latin America and World Travel Market Africa. www.wtmworld.com
World Travel Market Events
World Travel Market is comprised of the leading leisure travel events in the world; World Travel Market London, WTM Latin America in Sao Paulo, WTM Africa in Cape Town and Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
New events for 2016 are WTM connect Asia and WTM connect China, which join WTM connect Ski and International Golf Travel Market. These unique one-to-one events are targeted at leisure and niche travel markets, allowing exhibitors to exclusively meet with elite hosted buyers.
The World Travel Market events are attended by the global travel and tourism industry's senior executives to conduct business deals and discover the latest research, insight and opinion.
In 2014, the World Travel Market events facilitated around $7 billion in industry deals from negotiations between the more than 15,000 buyers, 9,500 exhibitors (1,500 main stand holders and 8,000 stand sharers) in attendance of its four events.
WTM is owned by the world's leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions.
About Reed Exhibitions
Reed Exhibitions is the world's leading events organiser, with over 500 events in 43 countries. In 2014 Reed brought together over seven million event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organised by 41 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 43 industry sectors with trade and consumer events. It is part of the RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries.
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For further information on the Honourees, please see the websites below:
The TreadRight Foundation, http://www.treadright.org/
Tusk Trust, http://www.tusk.org/index/us
Wildscreen, http://www.wildscreen.org/
For further information on the Sponsors, please see the websites below:
Corinthia Hotels, http://www.corinthia.com
The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com
United Airlines, http://www.united.com
Photo Attached:
2015 World Tourism Awards Honorees and Sponsors
Left to Right: Lucie Muir, Director, Wildscreen; Patrick Falconer, Managing Director UK, The New York Times; Charlie Mayhew MBE, CEO, Tusk Trust; Céline Cousteau, TreadRight Ambassador; Kathaleen Hanna, Wildscreen Trustee; Bianca Pappas, The Bradford Group representing Fiona Harris, Director of International Public Relations, Corinthia Hotels; Kate Macbeth, Head of Marketing & Communications, WTM Portfolio, Reed Travel Exhibitions; Bob Schumacher, Managing Director Sales, United Kingdom & Ireland, United Airlines; and Peter Greenberg, Travel Editor, CBS News
A photo accompanying this release is available at:
