Slovenia has boosted the profile of its tourism and wellness credentials, thanks to its victory at the inaugural International Travel & Tourism Awards, presented by WTM London.
The Slovenian Tourist Board (STB) scooped the gold medal in the Wellness category of the awards, held during WTM London in November 2018. It took the top honour after facing stiff competition, with other nominated finalists such as Costa Rica, Gran Canaria and Hungary.
Maja Pak, Director at the Slovenian Tourist Board, said: “We are very proud of the award that the STB received for our ‘Healthy Waters’ promotional campaign, which highlighted spa tourism and wellness tourism for two years.
“The award is of great importance for further strengthening Slovenia’s position as a land of unique natural wealth and also serves as great incentive for continuing our efforts in promoting Slovenian tourism.”
As well as the ‘Healthy Waters’ campaign, the STB entry included other activities related to spa tourism in Slovenia.
The expert judges were impressed by the tourist board’s wide range of projects to promote spa and wellness resorts, most notably a successful global digital campaign.
Since winning the gold award, the tourist board has featured its accolade in press releases, on its website, and via its social media channels.
Pak said the award “further strengthened” Slovenia’s reputation for health tourism, sustainability and high-quality tourism products.
She said the recognition helped to create a higher profile for Slovenia generally and generated “great feedback” from business partners, even several months after the awards ceremony.
The tourist board found it was a useful process to look back at its campaign in detail during the awards application process.
The victory also boosted motivation and morale among staff and has helped to attract talent when it has been recruiting.
“This was a major success for the whole organisation,” concluded Pak. “All the sectors in our company were involved in this project and this resulted in numerous offline and online activities.”
Furthermore, the STB’s PR agency in the UK market – AM+A Marketing and Media Relations – was rated as highly commended in the category of the Best Tourism Marketing Agency.
The agency was lauded for its project called ‘Supporting Slovenia Tourism Board’s World Bee Day: Introducing Api Tourism to the World’.
AM+A’s work contributed to global recognition for Slovenia’s officially UN-backed World Bee Day, which raised awareness for the environment and the importance of sustainable approaches to tourism.
The global campaign generated results in the world’s leading global media and travel trade press, reaching more than one billion people.
Entries are now open for the 2019 International Travel & Tourism Awards, presented by WTM London.
The awards celebrate the success of national, regional and city tourist boards and recognise outstanding private sector companies and individuals. Organised by WTM London, along with an independent panel of expert judges, the 15 awards showcase the best in class of the global travel and tourism industry, in front of an audience of more than 500 senior industry professionals.