Orlando resorts honored at World Travel Awards

Melora Hardin with Room Operations Manager Victor Yordan, left, and Food & Beverage Operations Manager Carlos Sarmiento from Disney’s Grand Floridian, winner of North America’s Leading Resort.
Photo by worldtravelawards.com.

Two area resorts received accolades at the World Travel Awards North and Central America Ceremony black-tie gala held Saturday night at Walt Disney’s Dolphin Hotel.

Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa beat out nine other nominees for the prestigious title of “North America’s Leading Resort.” And the Swan and Dolphin was named “North America’s Leading Conference Hotel” and “USA: Florida’s Leading Resort.” Melora Hardin from NBC’s “The Office” presented the awards to executives from both resorts.

In all, over 40 awards were handed out to destinations, resorts, spas, airlines, and more in between entertainment provided by Hardin, emcee Walt Willey from “All My Children,” Ricky Paull Goldin – also from “All My Children,” and stand-up comedian Rodney Laney from Comedy Central.

This event was part of the World Travel Awards Grand Tour, which holds other regional award events throughout the world including Dubai, Sydney, and Shanghai. The Tour ends with a Grand Finale in the Turks & Caicos Islands on Dec. 12.

Since 1993, the World Travel Awards have been recognizing excellence in the world’s travel and tourism, and is described by the Wall Street Journal as “The Oscars of the Travel Industry.” Travel professionals from 167,000 travel agencies, tour and transport companies, and tourism organizations across the globe cast their votes online, which means the awards are peer-selected.

A complete list of all winners is available on their website at www.worldtravelawards.com.

This blog entry was written by Orlando Attractions Magazine and freelance travel writer Deborah Brauser. Visit her online at www.orlandotravelwriter.com