World Travel Awards is a annual industry award recognizing excellence in Hospitality. Organized by World Travel Awards, it covers the Global region. Established in 1993.
World Travel Awards (WTA) was established in 1993 to recognize excellence across all key sectors of travel, tourism, and hospitality — hotels, airlines, destinations, tour operators, cruise lines, and more. Awards are presented across three tiers: country, regional, and world. Shortlists combine vetted entries, WTA commendations, and automatic requalification of the previous year's winner and two runners-up; winners are then decided by year-round online voting from qualified travel-industry executives (whose verified votes carry double weighting) and consumer travel buyers, with votes internally audited.
Winning at country level is a marketable distinction for a single property or operator; regional winners advance automatically to the world tier, where titles such as "World's Leading Airline" or "World's Leading Destination" are heavily used in industry marketing and press. Each year WTA stages its Grand Tour — a series of regional gala ceremonies attended by industry decision-makers and media — culminating in a Grand Final at the end of the year where regional winners go head-to-head.
Entry is via an online form (in English) submitted against published closing dates that vary by region. Entries are vetted first; only successful applicants are invoiced the entry fee (amounts are not published), after which nominees receive a digital pack — nominee shield, voting buttons, banners, and a dedicated voting page — and may campaign publicly once voting opens. Strong performers treat the voting window as a structured marketing campaign, mobilizing customers, trade partners, and staff; the previous year's winner and two runners-up requalify without re-entering, so check the nominee pages before paying for an entry.