Writer Arthur Frommer has won a prestigious World Travel Market 2015 World Travel Leaders Award in recognition of his lifelong work to encourage Americans to travel the world.
Frommer received the coveted award today (Tuesday 3 November) at the WTM World Travel Leaders Award ceremony. The award was presented by Travel Weekly US editor-in-chief, Arnie Weissman.
The Awards give WTM London’s Official Media Partners – which represent key travel industry media around the world – an excellent platform to congratulate and recognise those companies and individuals which have made the greatest contributions to travel and tourism in their region or sector.
Three nominations from each of WTM London’s media partners were judged in September by a panel of three, made up of an independent body, a representative of WTM and the relevant media partner.
In 1955 Frommer published a book called “The GI’s Guide to Travelling in Europe.” The aim of the book was to encourage Americans to visit post-war Europe and to guide them when doing so.
This was the first of many books Frommer published which include the highly successful “Europe on $5 a day.” His guidebooks have led the way for the likes of Lonely Planet in the travel guidebook industry.
In addition to the books that Frommer wrote, he also founded a wholesale tour operation and built a hotel in Amersterdam, which is now part of the Accor group. In the late 1980s he also founded a magazine, Budget travel, which informed Americans how to travel cheaply not just through Europe, but the rest of the world.
Competitors have since risen and displaced Frommer’s dominance but he is still heavily involved in the travel industry. In 2013 he brought back the rights to the Frommer’s Travel Guides, which had been sold to Google, and a new title under the ‘Easy Guide’ series began appearing in bookstores. He continues to write a syndicated travel column and has a weekly radio well “The Travel Show with Arthur & Pauline Frommer”, hosted with his daughter.
Frommer gave confidence to American travellers to explore foreign lands but also a huge impact on the countries that his American readers visited. A mention in his book, his magazine or on his radio or television shows insuring a hotel or restaurants success, or that a museum’s attendance would rise.
The WTM World Travel Leaders judges acknowledged Frommer’s hard-work as he attempted to persuade American citizens to travel the world.
“Frommer has dedicated his life to encouraging Americans to expand their horizons and travel. He was ahead of his time in the ‘50s in encouraging authentic travel. Big brands have imitated but he was the pioneer,” the judges said.
Every year, World Travel Leaders Awards are presented at WTM London. The full list of 2015 winners is:
Canada: WestJet
Spain: Loro Parque Fundacion
Italy: Trenitalia
Brazil: Mr. Eloi D’Avila De Oliveira – Founder of Flytour group
Portugal: Vila Gale Hotels
Russia: Bronevik.com
India: roomsXML Solutions Limited
China: World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF)
Travolution: Gareth Williams
USA: Arthur Frommer
TTG: G Adventures
Middle East: Air Arabia
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About World Travel Market London
WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 51,500 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL – London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM London, now in its 36th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals. WTM 2014 will generate around £2.5 billion of travel industry contracts.
WTM London is part of Reed Travel Exhibition’s World Travel Market events, which also includes Arabian Travel Market, World Travel Market Latin America and World Travel Market Africa. www.wtmworld.com
World Travel Market Events
World Travel Market is comprised of the leading leisure travel events in the world; World Travel Market London, WTM Latin America in Sao Paulo, WTM Africa in Cape Town and Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
New events for 2016 are WTM connect Asia and WTM connect China, which join WTM connect Ski and International Golf Travel Market. These unique one-to-one events are targeted at leisure and niche travel markets, allowing exhibitors to exclusively meet with elite hosted buyers.
The World Travel Market events are attended by the global travel and tourism industry’s senior executives to conduct business deals and discover the latest research, insight and opinion.
In 2014, the World Travel Market events facilitated around $7 billion in industry deals from negotiations between the more than 15,000 buyers, 9,500 exhibitors (1,500 main stand holders and 8,000 stand sharers) in attendance of its four events.
WTM is part of Reed travel Exhibitions, the leading events organiser in the travel industry, and is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions.
Reed Travel Exhibitions
Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry. Its wide-ranging portfolio of events around the globe covers leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, incentives and business travel, as well as golf, ski and spa travel.
RTE, which organises more than 22 events around the world, includes three divisions; World Travel Market, IBTM World and International Luxury Travel Market.
RTE is a business unit of Reed Exhibitions.
About Reed Exhibitions
Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organiser, with over 500 events in 43 countries. In 2014 Reed brought together over seven million event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organised by 41 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 43 industry sectors with trade and consumer events. It is part of the RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries.