The Black Sea city of Batumi became the winner of the World Travel Awards, which is called the "tourist Oscar" - the capital of Adjara was awarded the prize in the nomination "The best fast-growing tourist destination in Europe."
The winner was announced on June 8 at the awards ceremony in the Portuguese city of Madeira. The event was attended by leading travel companies, as well as representatives of the private sector and government organizations.
The competition between Batumi was Sofia (Bulgaria), Matera (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Kutna Hora (Czech Republic). Until April 28, 2018, an online voting took place on the World Travel Awards website - anyone could vote for one of these areas.
The prestigious prize at the ceremony in Madeira was handed over to the head of the Ajarian government, Tornike Rizhvadze, the mayor of Batumi, Lasha Komakhidze, and the head of the tourism department of Adjara, Sulkhan Glonti.
World Travel Awards - held since 1993. Applicants are selected by a professional jury and an audience in several stages according to many criteria: quality of service, guest satisfaction, developed infrastructure, safety.
Every year the winners of the award are the best representatives of the travel industry, hotel business, and civil aviation. Throughout the year, awards are awarded at three levels: countrywide, regionally, and then the whole world. Winners are determined by online voting, which involves hundreds of thousands of professionals and millions of travelers.
