Hilal al-Kuwari speaking at the award ceremony
Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF), Middle East’s premier sports city, has been voted the world’s Leading Sports Tourism Development Project for the first time at the World Travel Awards 2012.
The prestigious award was received on behalf of AZF by Abdulaziz Abdullah Al-Mahmoud at a gala red-carpet ceremony held at the Katara Cultural Village on Wednesday. The event was attended by hundreds of senior executives and professionals from the travel and leisure industry.
Rising to international prominence through successful staging of 2006 Asian Games, AZF is home to some of the world’s finest sport stadia and venues offering a stimulating combination of sport, sports medicine and research, and sport education.
Graham Cooke presenting an award to Abdulaziz Abdullah al-Mahmoud at the Word Travel Awards 2012 held at Katara
The award is a testament of AZF’s engaging year-long event calendar with programmes that develop sports champions, promote healthy lifestyles and galvanise the sports economy of today through a network of special business units (SBUs): Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence, ASPETAR, and
Aspire Logistics.
“This award reflects what we truly stand for: quality and commitment. Through a niche combination of sports, sports science and sport education, we are committed to usher Qatar and the region into a new era of sports development, sports as a means of healthy living and sports as tourism,” said Hilal al-Kuwari, president of AZF.
“We would also like to congratulate Qatar for receiving World’s Leading Business Travel Destination (Doha), World’s Leading Airline – Business Class (Qatar Airways) and World’s Leading Travel Agency (Regency Travel & Tours). We hope the accolades spur a renewed confidence that Qatar has garnered in the last decade,” added
al-Kuwari.
The other contenders for the Leading Sports Tourism Development Project category were Dubai Sports City, Jaypee Greens Sports City, India; Phuket International Academy, Thailand; Yas Island, Abu Dhabi; and Zayed Sports City,
Abu Dhabi.
AZF’s Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence conceives, promotes and implements game-changing curricula in sports that is enabling an entire generation of highly-skilled, disciplined and competent athletes, both Qataris and otherwise.
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