LANGKAWI, Dec 15 – The Langkawi International Tourism Award 2015 (LITA 2015) ceremony which will be held this Friday is set to be a glittering event to cap the achievements of tourism players in the island here. Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) chief executive officer, Tan Sri Khalid Ramli said over 1,200 people from Malaysia and overseas would gather at the Langkawi International Convention Centre (LICC) for the event which is expected to be officiated by Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“We want the recipients for the awards to be very proud of their achievements. This is not an ordinary award but a very important one to raise their competitiveness. Meanwhile, this would be the fifth year for LADA to organise the award ceremony and 11 new categories had been introduced this year to make a total of 29 awards to be won,” he told a press conference here.
“The number of nominations that we received have also increased to 179 this year as compared to 113 last year. This increase shows that LITA has been recognised by tourism industry players in Langkawi as a prestigious award. LITA Best Blogger Award, which is one of the new categories introduced this year, had received tremendous responses as nominations for overseas bloggers, such as in the United Kingdom, Germany and France, were also received,” said Khalid.
He said the introduction of this category, as well as the Best Travel Website award, signified LADA’s recognition over the important role of using the internet as a medium to promote Langkawi as a tourism destination. From the total number of awards, six awards will be for the accommodation section comprising Best Five-Star Hotel, Best Four-Star Hotel, Best Three-Star Hotel, Best Two-Star Hotel and below, Best Homestay and Best Bed and Breakfast.
For the restaurant section, there will be awards for the Best Restaurant, Best F&B Outlet, Best Local Eatery – Night Market Hawker, Best Local Eatery – Food Shack and Best Local Eatery – Food Truck. Nine awards for the services section include for the Best Tourist Guide, Best Boat Operator, Best Tour Operator, Best Taxi Driver, Best Tourism Event, Best Tourism Article, Best Blogger, Best Travel Website and Best Ferry Operator.
The products section provide awards for the Best Hotel-Based Spa, Best Duty Free Business, Best Tourism Attraction (Man-made) and Best Tourism Attraction (Natural). Best Geopark Community, Best Innovative Package (Geopark Experience), Best Community Leader, Best NGO Partner and Best Tourism Village are awards featured under the Geopark section.
