Sri Lanka bagged the prestigious British Guild of Travel Writers Tourism Award for the Best International Tourism project in the Wider World for The Pekoe Trail, at the Annual Gala Awards held in London on Sunday (05).

This is the first time Sri Lanka has secured an International Tourism Award at the renowned British Guild. The award was announced and presented by Sri Lanka’s Minister of Tourism Harin Fernando who attended the event as a guest of honor.

Receiving the award, the Minister of Tourism remarked that “We are thrilled and humbled to receive this accolade for Sri Lanka.  It validates our efforts to revive the tourism industry in our country, after a few challenging years, by innovating and celebrating authentic travel, in a way that resonates with and attracts travelers keen to explore and discover the real Sri Lanka.” 

“Sri Lanka has high potential for nature based, wellness tourism and transformative travel, and The Pekoe Trail is spearheading new immersive experiences in this segment,” he said.

The Pekoe Trail has won the award beating 04 other major projects nominated under the wider-world category. Sri Lanka Tourism has also partnered with the British Guild this year to host the International Tourism Awards segment exposing new tourism branding ”Sri Lanka - you’ll come back for more” to an audience of 300 high-profile media who attended the event last night.

Sri Lanka Tourism extended its gratitude to the founder of the Pekoe Trail, Miguel Cunat, European Union and the U.S. Agency for International Development for funding the project and thanked Petra Shepherd and Jessica Vincent for nominating Sri Lanka for this award and for featuring wonderful stories about the trail, and to all the other numerous travel writers and journalists that have written so many wonderful things about the trail and Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Tourism is all set to announce this major win at the WTM Opening Ceremony on 06th November at Excel, London to emphasize the destination’s commitment for sustainable Tourism initiatives. 

Sri Lanka pekoe trail wins the best wider world tourism project organized by the British Guild of travel writers. Pekoe trail was nominated by British guild of travel writers, 5 counties were in the final and Sri Lanka grabbed the first place. #eu #usaid #srilankatourism pic.twitter.com/2YIMvKqwHO

— Harin Fernando (@fernandoharin) November 6, 2023