Heritance Kandalama wins Diversey Special Recognition award at SKAL World Congress 2013

Wednesday, 9 October 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

For twelve consecutive years, the Skål International Sustainable Development in Tourism Awards were presented during the opening ceremony of the annual Skål World Congress. This year, for the first time, the 74th congress was held aboard a cruise from the Big Apple on 28 September and stopped in Boston, Portland, Halifax, St. John and New England.

The awards ceremony was held on 29 September 2013 and was conducted by Skål International Director of Business Affairs Nigel Pilkington. The trophies and certificates were presented by the Skål International President Mok Singh, together with Vice-President Karine Coulanges. Skål, founded in 1934, is the largest organisation of travel and tourism professionals in the world. To encourage the conservation of the environment and help to promote the development of responsible and sustainable tourism, Skål International initiated an awards program in 2002, during “The Year of Ecotourism and the Mountains” as declared by United Nations. Since the launch of the awards in 2002, they have received strong ongoing support and attracted a high level of participation, with a total of 482 entrants. This year, a total of 26 projects, from 17 countries, have entered the eight different categories. For third consecutive year, Diversey presented a Special Recognition Award to one of the projects among the 26 competing in the 2013 edition of the Skål “Sustainable Development in Tourism” Awards. The “SKÅL Special Recognition by Diversey” shares its aim with the “Sustainable Development in Tourism Awards” (SDIT), and is designed to acknowledge projects which are new and innovative, set up to transform the conventional understanding of sustainability to deliver a most efficient output, closer to the idea of integrated bottom lines where business and environment, along with safety, risk management, and corporate responsibility is managed. Diversey Director Product Stewardship and Sustainability Daniel Dagget Ph.D. attended the 74th Skal World Congress and provided valuable information about significance of sustainability in the tourism industry and presented the outstanding award to the business which excelled in sustainability. The Diversey Special Recognition Award for 2013, handed out by Daniel Dagget went to Heritance Kandalama. The award was collected by Sk. Jason Samuel, International Councillor of Skål International India, on behalf of Heritance Kandalama Hotel.