Belize’s Chaa Creek Nominated
For A Travvy Award
Bring on the Travvys!
Ending the year on a high Note With Our Travel Industry Colleagues
One of the things the management and staff of Chaa Creek take pride in is a high level of customer satisfaction. We see this in the smiles and gracious thank you’s of our guests, and in the overwhelmingly positive comments on sites such as Trip Advisor. It’s great when you love your job, and even better when you see that your efforts are appreciated.
And while our guests are our number one priority, recognition from with the travel industry is also important. It shows that other professionals appreciate what we do, and how we do it.
Chaa Creek has also been fortunate in this area, having over the years been acknowledged with awards or accolades from travel industry players such as the Belize Tourism Board, Conde Nast Traveller, National Geographic, Fox News, CNN Travel, Fodors Travel, Forbes Traveller, Travel+Leisure, Gayots Guide, Huffpost Travel, Zagat Survey, Green Globe and others.
So we were very happy to be nominated for a Travvy Award, presented by travAlliancemedia, the travel industry media company and publishers of the industry’s major magazines and websites, to “recognise the highest standards of excellence in the industry today and honour travel companies, travel products, travel agencies and destinations for their outstanding achievement,” according to their media release.
Cautioning that, “It’s not easy to win a Travvy as entrants undergo a comprehensive judging process that employs a rigorous three step process to ensure the best of the best are selected,”travAlliancemedia explained that “we’ll survey almost 100% of the entire travel agent market via Agent@Home magazine, Vacation Agent magazine and TravelPulse.com for their nominations. Finally, our editorial panel will select the best based on the nominations of the travel agents.”
The process does sound rigorous indeed, and even being accepted for nomination was great news for us. And while we realise that, by being on a ballot sent to over 90,000 travel agents, we’ll be vying for an award contested by some of the largest resorts and hotel chains in the business, we’re happy to step up in Belizean fashion as a locally founded, owned and operated family enterprise.
And besides, it’s not really all about the winning – we think it’s important for the travel industry to take a good look at itself now and then to identify and acknowledge best practices. The awards are a part of the growth process, of constantly striving to improve.
And in saying that, we have to agree with travAlliancemedia’s own ethos:
“Our philosophy is simple: We believe that travel is not an off-the-shelf commodity, but rather a highly valuable experience made greater through the guidance and personal touch of a trained professional. Our news, information and education services strengthen the profession and enable tens of thousands of agents to build, run and succeed in business.”
That philosophy is one of the reasons why we’re honoured to be joining so many other travel industry colleagues this year to celebrate professionalism and discuss things where the travel industry is heading, where and how to improve, what today’s travellers want, and other topics of interest. It’s going to be a very interesting event, regardless of who wins the various awards.
However, if you are voting for the Travvy’s this year…
Only kidding. Voting closes December 7, with the winners announced mid December with an invitation to a gala dinner in New York City January 22 2015 , just in time for the big New York Times Travel Show