Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts announces first-ever Travel Blogger Awards

• Next phase of Asia’s most successful TBC Asia announced at ITB Berlin!

Standing from left: Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA) President Craig Martin, Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts Sector Head for Sri Lanka & Maldives resorts Sunimal Senanayake and Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts Head of Brand Marketing Dileep Mudadeniya

Last year Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts successfully organised Asia’s first ever Travel Bloggers Conference – TBC Asia 2014, in association with the Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA). Held for the first time in Asia, the Travel Bloggers Conference was successful in aiming to spur tourism and business via the new and fast growing medium of authentic communication and marketing. The conference preceded a tour around the country for 50 bloggers from world to popular tourist destinations that took place from 14 to 18 November. The conference itself saw the participation of three very important stakeholders in the tourism industry – travel bloggers, traditional media and officials in the sector such as hoteliers and regulatory bodies. In total around 250 people attended the conference. Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts together with the PTBA officially announce TBC Asia 2016 & Cinnamon Travel Blogger Awards   To date, the tour had resulted in more than 6,000 tweets so far with a four million reach and 49 million impressions across social media networks that have become possible through the immense following each of these bloggers to the table with them. “Considering the success of TBC Asia 2014 and the enormous exposure Sri Lanka and Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts received through social media and popular travel blogs, it was an obvious decision to have another instalment of TBC Asia. However, seeing the response, we further wanted to see how we can elevate this edition to maximise on the novel concept. As a result, now in addition to hosting more travel bloggers for TBC Asia 2016, we will also be pioneering the most comprehensive Cinnamon Travel Blogger Awards to recognise the contribution that bloggers make to creating awareness on travel and destinations,” commented Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts Head of Brand Marketing Dileep Mudadeniya. Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts together with the PTBA officially announced TBC Asia 2016 and Cinnamon Travel Blogger Awards which is to be held in Sri Lanka in April 2016 at ITB Berlin – the leading travel fair that is currently underway in Germany. The PTBA commended last year’s conference stating that; “TBC Asia was an absolute success and the feed-back we have got from the bloggers as well as industry experts has been overwhelming. We are proud to be collaborating with Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts in another world first: the inaugural Cinnamon Travel Bloggers Awards in 2016. These awards will highlight the best in travel and new media from the past year, and provide a spectacular highlight at TBC Asia 2016.”