The red carpet was rolled out at the
‘World Ski Awards’ in the legendary winter sports destination of Kitzbühel,
Austria. The ceremony took place on the 16th November within the
glamorous setting of the ‘A-ROSA Hotel & Resort’. The awards are the first
ever global initiative to celebrate and reward excellence in the ski
hospitality industry.
Mr Bongkil Ko, Deputy Director of the
Korea Tourism Organisation (London office) and I, had the honour of picking-up
the awards for ‘South Korea’s Best Ski Resort’, which went to ‘YongPyong’, and
‘South Korea’s Best Ski Hotel’ whose recipient was ‘Alpensia Pyeongchang Resort’.
The ‘World Ski Awards Gala Ceremony’ was
the perfect platform to remind attendees that Korea will host the ‘2018 Winter
Olympics in Pyeongchang’ and network with the global ski travel community.
Guests came from all over the world including Australia and South America for
this inaugural event that will surely become an annual fixture within the
tourism industry calendar.
World Ski Awards is the sister
organisation of World Travel Awards, which is heralded as “the Oscars of the travel
industry” and who honoured Korea last year as 'Asia's Leading Sports Tourism Destination
2012'. So to accept these further awards in 2013 is another clear example of
the diversity of Korea’s tourism offering to the global traveller.
Just shy of a million votes were submitted
by professionals working in the ski industry – senior executives, travel
buyers, tour operators, agents and media and by ski tourism consumers to select
their favourite ski resorts, hotels and chalets from the published shortlist of
finalists from the top 20 ski nations.
A chauffeured Audi Q7 (Audi were one of
several key sponsors to the event) whisked us from Munich Airport having
arrived on one of the many EasyJet services (easyjet.com) serving the Bavarian
capital; from there, it was less than a 90 minute drive to arrive in Kitzbühel,
making the location a star attraction of the awards and begging the question as
to whether a resort in ‘Gangwon-do’ might also host the ceremony as we march
closer to ‘PyeongChang 2018’.
On our return journey home from London
Gatwick Airport to Victoria Station, on my late night saviour 'The Gatwick
Express' (gatwickexpress.com), serendipitously, I met a Korean tourist who
beamed with pride when I told him Korea had won two prizes at the World Ski Awards.
He said, unprompted, that this ceremony should land in Korea before the 2018
Winter Olympics…..to which I had to agree!