7 September 2010 - Philippine Ambassador to China Francisco L. Benedicto reported that Cebu and Boracay won the "Best Travel & Leisure Destination (short haul) Award" in the recently concluded TravelWeekly China Travel and Meetings Industry Awards online voting competition.

The competition was organized by TravelWeekly China, a leading travel industry trade publication in China.

The award was accepted by Tourism Undersecretary Vicente Romano III in a ceremony held in Beijing on August 30.

The awards aim to recognize the best enterprises in China's travel, meeting and incentive industry.

Since its debut in 2002, this event has won recognition from the industry for its fairness, transparency and creativity.

Ambassador 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 since 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.  END