Personal Touch

This year’s awards ceremony saw Guest of Honour Frank Gardner OBE speak from the heart, winners drawn from across the travel spectrum and readers vote for their best resort for the first time

More than 400 leading travel and hospitality executives attended the Palazzo Versace Dubai ballroom for The Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2018 ceremony. Winners were evenly drawn from across the travel industry spectrum, reflecting increased competition across product and destination categories. The awards were hosted by Motivate and Panacea Publishing, the magazine’s joint venture partner.

BBC Security Correspondent and author Frank Gardner OBE was the Guest of Honour. The fluent Arab speaker and highly acclaimed journalist gave an informed and entertaining speech which also reflected on the challenges facing disabled travellers (turn to pages 18-19 to read the interview) and his time living in the UAE (1997-2000), which included a memorable meeting in Abu Dhabi with HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and explorer Wilfred Thesiger. Special guests included H.E. Emmanuel Kamarianakis, Consul General of Canada to Dubai and the Northern Emirates, H.E. Paul Malik, American Consul General in Dubai and H.E. Gerard Seeber, Australian Consul General. Guests watched a video highlighting major travel developments in the region produced by Motivate's own digital content division.