Competition to Recognize Innovative Tourism Pivots Brings Hope & Inspiration

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Sep 10, 2020, 11:30 ET

LONDON, Sept. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The tourism and hospitality industries have been through a lot this year. The situation is ongoing, and there is understandably a lot of worry. While we acknowledge the seriousness of the current state of affairs, we think the world needs more hope and inspiration right now.

To that end, today the World Food Travel Association (WFTA) launched a shorter version of its annual FoodTrekking Awards competition, specifically to recognize businesses and destinations that have made innovative and successful pivots to their food or beverage tourism business model because of the pandemic. For example, a restaurant may have found a clever way to keep all staff on the payroll until business picks up. Or a tourism office may have launched an unexpected marketing campaign to local residents with fantastic results. These are the types of stories we want to hear about, and they would make great awards applications.

"While we put our main FoodTrekking Awards categories on hold until 2021, we have just introduced two new, timely categories to recognize destinations and businesses in our food and beverage tourism industry that are finding truly innovative ways to cope," said WFTA Executive Director Erik Wolf. "Our intent is to bring hope and inspiration to the world's food, beverage, hospitality and tourism industries." Winners will be announced on November 30, 2020.

The abbreviated FoodTrekking Awards competition is open now through October 31. A wide variety of business types that eligible to apply include culinary tour operators; culinary tourist guides; culinary travel agencies; cooking classes; restaurants, cafes and bars; tasting rooms; wineries and breweries; culinary lodging properties; culinary retail stores; culinary travel media; and all types of destination marketing organizations. Interested parties can learn more here.

ABOUT THE FOODTREKKING AWARDS

The FoodTrekking Awards are an annual competition to celebrate and recognize excellence and innovation in food and beverage tourism products and experiences. The Awards are now in their sixth year and are produced by the World Food Travel Association.

ABOUT THE WORLD FOOD TRAVEL ASSOCIATION (WFTA)

The WFTA is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2001 by its current executive director Erik Wolf. It is recognized as the world's leading authority on food tourism/ culinary tourism/ gastronomy tourism. The WFTA's mission is to preserve and promote culinary cultures through hospitality and travel. Every year, the organization serves almost 200,000 professionals in 150+ countries. For more information, visit www.WorldFoodTravel.org.

Media Contact: Erik Wolf (+44) 7827 582 554 [email protected]

SOURCE World Food Travel Association