Vietnam wins top titles at ‘Tourism Oscars’ ceremony

 Rong Bridge (Dragon Bridge), an iconic image of Da Nang City. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

The central city of Da Nang was named 'Asia’s Leading Festival and Event Destination'.

The 23rd World Travel Awards, known as “the Oscars of the travel industry”, landed in Vietnam for the first time on October 15.

The awards were established to honor interesting destinations and excellent organizations from all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry.

This year, the central city of Da Nang was awarded "Asia’s Leading Festival and Event Destination".

The award is expected to boost the development of local tourism and promote the image of a young, dynamic city to foreign visitors, said Da Nang’s tourism promotion center.

Apart from Da Nang, 23 other Vietnamese enterprises were also honored at the ceremony.

The country’s flagship carrier Vietnam Airlines claimed the title of "Asia’s Leading Airline for Economy Class" while the InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort was named “ Asia’s Leading Luxury Resort”.

Viettravel, one of the leading tourism companies in Vietnam, won the "Asia’s Leading Tour Operator" award for the third consecutive year.

Tran Doan The Duy, deputy head of Viettravel, said that the company is trying to maintain its position in the top 10 leading tour operators in Asia and reach a target of one million tourist arrivals in the near future.

The World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate leaders in the tourism, airline, hotel and hospitality sectors around the world.

In 2016, the program has held numerous gala ceremonies all over the world to find regional winners who then compete for the global awards.

The final results will be announced at the end of this year.

By Nguyen Dong, Nhung Bui  / VnExpress