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16.10.09
AWARDING THE BEST OF MALAYSIA!
Expatriate Lifestyle magazine present the winners of The Best of Malaysia Travel Awards 2009 at a ceremony in central KL
Expatriate Lifestyle’s annual showcase celebration for the Best of Malaysia Travel Awards took place on the evening of October 15 at Passion Road. 150 of the opinion leaders and key decision-makers from the Malaysian travel and hospitality industry came together in a celebration of the biggest awards for their industry that is 100 per cent voted for by consumers.
The awards featured a presentation of nearly fifty winners across nineteen categories that were announced in last month’s Expatriate Lifestyle. Each category awarded a ‘Best’ for the place to have received most votes, while several were so closely contested and received so many votes that outlets to narrowly miss out on top spot received ‘Excellence Awards’.
Now in their fourth year, the Best of Malaysia Travel Awards 2009 received votes from the 100,000-strong expatriate community living across Malaysia from June to September of this year. The vote count was up an astonishing 80 per cent on 2008, which proves not only how engaged expatriates are in travel and tourism but also how knowledgeable and able to pass judgement they are.
As a result, the hotels, spas, resorts, attractions and other hospitality providers recognised by the Best of Malaysia Awards can be assured of being the very top of their field.
The ceremony took place on a very warm evening with cooling relief on hand by way of giant well-positioned fans and cooling glasses of Heineken, kindly sponsored by GAB, and wine from Danzke.
Passion Road (www.passionroad.com.my) on Lorong Yap Kwan Seng provided a stunning setting, with every effort gone to in decking out the new outlet with classy décor and a rustic, natural feel. The venue was such a hit that guests were only too happy to stay on after the presentation to eat, drink and share laughs with their peers.
Editor of Expatriate Lifestyle and host of the awards ceremony, Matthew Bellotti, said of the awards “We began the BOMs four years ago as we understood that expatriates love to travel and they know what’s good and what’s not. Every year the amount of votes cast and the strength of the reader’s choice of winners is a hugely pleasing. They clearly know their stuff!”
“This year is no exception with more votes cast than ever before. We promoted the awards very heavily and it took weeks to count and check the results. In many cases the winners were separated by just one or two votes. Take the ‘Best City Hotel’, always our most heated category. For that we had twelve votes separating the top six hotels. Incredible stuff! When you consider the hundreds and hundreds of votes that we received it just goes to show how every vote counts.”
In each category the overall winner received a plaque commending them as ‘The Best of Malaysia’, while those who came close are attributed ‘Excellence Awards’.
“It’s a tradition of the event” explains Bellotti, “that we recognise those who have been voted for by sizeable proportions of the expatriate community. Take that ‘Best City Hotel’ category. Several hotels have been voted for by hundreds of voters and yet are a mere vote or two behind the hotel in first place. Their popularity deserves recognition. The whole point of the awards is to make the voice of expatriates heard and to show how knowledgeable they are when it comes to travel and hospitality. Hence the ‘Excellence Awards’ are, for me, just as important as being ‘The Best’.”
A full list of winners from The Best of Malaysia Travel Awards 2009 is available on www.expatriatelifestyle.com, along with further photographs from the awards ceremony.
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