Golden Bloggers Get Recognition
Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts with the national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines concluded yet another successful Cinnamon Travel Bloggers Conference-Cinnamon TBC Asia on 7 June at Cinnamon Grand Colombo. The event was followed by a novel component introduced this year – the Cinnamon Travel Blogger Awards. The gala awards night was the first of its kind to recognize the world’s leading travel bloggers for their invaluable contribution to the world of travel.
Over 700 submissions were received by the judging panel consisting of Jens Thraenhart –Founder of Digital Innovation Asia (DIA); Mario Hardy – Chief Executive Officer at Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA); Jan Tissera – President of TravelClick International; Sally Davey – Founder of Tripbod.com; Debbie Hindle – Managing Director of Four Travel and Dileep Mudadeniya – Head of Brand Marketing at Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, who shortlisted 30 finalists for the 10 categories being awarded.
10 of the nominees will go on to be awarded in the categories of Travel Blog of the Year, Best Up-coming Travel Blogger, Best Travel Writing Blog, Best Travel Photography Blog, Best Travel Video Blog, Best Food Blog, Best Luxury Travel Blog, Best Airline Blog, Best Optimization of Social Media and Best Responsible Tourism Blog.
The gala awards night not only saw 12 elated Gold winners pick up their awards; the five course sit down dinner brought together a fusion cuisine with a Sri Lankan twist, while a selection of awe-inspiring fusion performances kept the entire audience thoroughly entertained. This international awards ceremony was the first of its kind not only for Sri Lanka, but the global blogging community as a whole. John Amaratunga, Minister of Tourism Development and religious Christian affairs also addressed the audience at the event.
The Gold winners for the Cinnamon Travel Blogger awards are: Best Optimization of Social Media – Melvin Boecher, Traveldudes; Best Responsible Tourism Blog – Hal & Christina, Travel For Wildlife; Best travel photography blog – Adam & Hannah, Getting Stamped; Best travel video blog – Jordan & Jenna, Stoked for Saturday; Best Food Blog – Niamh Shields, Eat Like a Girl and Jodi Ettenberg, Legal Nomads; Best Luxury Travel blog – Jayne Gorman, Girl Tweets World; Best Airline blog – Alvin Lim , Alvinology; Best writing in a Travel blog – Kristin Addis, Be My Travel Muse; Best Up-coming Travel Blogger – Marta Kulesza, In a Faraway Land; Best Travel Blog of the year – Dave & Deb, The Planet D and Kiersten Rich, The Blonde Abroad
Cinnamon TBC Asia was presented by Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts in association with the Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA) and the national carrier SriLankan Airlines, and is also supported by Sri Lanka Tourism, the Market Development Facility supported by the Australian Government, Uptown Kandy, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, Reap Digital, TravelClick, Revinate, Mobitel, Cvisit, PATA, Four Communications, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, and E FM.
