Cebu, Boracay cited in China travel awards

Despite the tension between the Philippines and China caused by the August 23 hostage incident in Manila that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead, two travel destinations in the Philippines have been cited in a China-based online travel competition. The two destinations — Cebu and Boracay, both in the Visayas — won the "Best Travel & Leisure Destination (short haul) Award" in the recently concluded TravelWeekly China Travel and Meetings Industry Awards online voting competition, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Citing a report from Philippine Ambassador to China Francisco Benedicto, the DFA said Tourism Undersecretary Vicente Romano III accepted the award at a ceremony held in Beijing on August 30. It said the competition was organized by TravelWeekly China, a leading travel industry trade publication in China. "The awards aim to recognize the best enterprises in China's travel, meeting and incentive industry," the DFA said. Since its debut in 2002, the event has won the trust of the tourism industry for its fairness, transparency and creativity. Benedicto said the nominees for the awards were chosen by a panel of judges composed of travel and tourism industry executives and professionals. The nominees were then posted online from June 2010 and 800,000 netizens from the Chinese tourism and meetings industry voted on their choices. This year's winners are the following: * Best Leisure Destination - Li jiang, China * Best Travel & Leisure Destination (short haul) - Cebu and Boracay, Philippines * Best Travel & Leisure Destination (long haul) - United Kingdom * Best Ecological Destination - Norway * Best Resort Destination - Gold Coast, Australia In April, the Philippines also won a gold award in service quality at the China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market Fair in Beijing for its excellent performance in meeting the needs of Chinese tourists visiting the Philippines. - KBK, GMANews.TV