World Food Travel Association Announces 2016 Foodtrekking Award Winnners

For excellence in food and beverage tourism

. April 14, 2016

PORTLAND, OR. April 14, 2016 — The World Food Travel Association (WFTA), the world's leading authority on food and beverage tourism, announced today the winners of its 2016 FoodTrekking Awards for excellence in food and beverage tourism. This is the first year of the Awards, which fill a void of recognition in the food and beverage tourism industry. Food and beverage is the fastest-growing sector of travel, which itself is one of the world's largest and most economically significant industries.

LIST OF 2016 WINNERS

Winners are divided this year into five categories that celebrate the excellence of the visitor experience in foodservice, tour operations, wine, beer and overall destination.

The full list of winners follows below.

THE JUDGES

Excellence was assessed by a panel of five expert judges who included Benjamin Brown (cruise industry expert, Los Angeles, CA, USA); Gabriela Ibarra (destination marketing expert (Mexico); Steven Shomler (food truck expert, author and culinary journalism expert, Portland, OR, USA); Livio Colapinto (tour operations expert); and Stephan Berrouet Durand (foodservice and food event expert, New York City and Haiti). For each submission, the judges sought evidence of excellence in various criteria, including whether the experience represented was “unique and memorable”.

THE SELECTION PROCESS

Winners were selected only from submitted applications. For each category, there was one "grand prize" winner and up to two runner-up winners of equal standing.

2017 AWARDS

This year's awards recognize excellence in the five categories named. The 2017 Awards will expand categories to include food and beverage events; cooking schools and classes; and more. The next FoodTrekking Awards nominations will open in January 2017. Winners will be announced at the 2017 FoodTrekking World event in Portland, Oregon, USA on April 4, 2017.

ABOUT THE WORLD FOOD TRAVEL ASSOCIATION (WFTA)

The World Food Travel Association (WFTA) is a non-profit and non-governmental organization (NGO) and is recognized as the world's leading authority on food tourism. Its mission is to drive economic development for the food, drink, travel and hospitality trade. The Association was founded in 2003 by its Executive Director Erik Wolf and today brings innovative food tourism solutions and thought leadership to 35,000+ industry professionals in 139 countries. Learn more at www.WorldFoodTravel.org.

AND THE WINNERS ARE, for excellence in food and beverage tourism:

Best Foodservice Experience

Grand Prize: Restaurant Aanaar at the Hotel Kultahovi, Inari, Finland

Runner Up: La Cuina del Vent, Catalonia, Spain

Best Tour Operations

Grand Prize: Turkish Flavours, Istanbul, Turkey

Runner Up: Odyssey New Zealand, Napier New Zealand

Runner Up: Italian Food Artisans, Santa Barbara, California, USA

Best Beer Experience

Grand Prize: BlackLab Brewhouse & Kitchen, Barcelona, Spain

Runner Up: Brouwerij De Koninck, Antwerp, Belgium

Best Wine Experience