South Africa scored more than 60 nominations in the World Travel Awards Grand Final 2022, but only three establishments won their categories.
Saxon Hotel Villas and Spa was voted World's Leading Boutique Hotel 2022. It is the second year in a row for the Johannesburg hotel.
Villa iZulu @ Thanda Safari KwaZulu-Natal won the World's Leading Luxury Lodge category.
Shambala Private Game Reserve, South Africa was top in the category World's Leading Private Game Reserve. In this category, all three nominees were from South Africa. The other two were Shamwari and Londolozi.
The winners were announced at a glitzy event in Muscat, Oman, on Friday.
Anyone can vote for their favourite in these awards. Members of the public’s vote counts as one vote, and verified industry players’ vote counts as two.
Table Mountain and the cable way expected to do well in the two categories it was nominated in, but Machu Picchu in Peru won as the World’s Leading Tourism Attraction and in the category Leading Cable Car Ride, the winner was the Cable Car at Sun World Ba Na Hills in Vietnam.
The big winner of the evening was the Maldives, which won the category World’s Leading Destination. In total, 23 awards went to Dubai. Vietnam took five awards, and Jamaica three.
Here are some of the other winners:
- Best airline: Qatar Airways
- Best airport: Dubai International Airport (Cape Town International was a finalist)
- Leading Business Travel Destination, Dubai
- Leading Hotel Brand: Marriot Hotels
- Leading Meetings and Conference Destination: Madrid (Durban was a finalist)