This catchy slogan has come to stay due to these islands having won the World Travel Award for Best Island Destination of the World.
This was now the second time that a wind favourable to Madeira has blown from Morocco. As with the first time, this happened in December, the first time being in 1999 when the laurel forest was declared a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO. The second time was when on the 12th of this month, when Madeira was crowned the Best Island Destination of the World in the prestigious World Travel Awards.
Victory had already manifested itself to Madeira when it won the World Travel Award for Best Island Destination of Europe in 2013. This year the picture was bigger, the Madeira islands placed ahead of destinations such as Bali, Barbados, Crete, the Cook Islands, Jamaica, the Maldives, the Mauritius islands, Saint Lucia, Sardinia, Seychelles, Sicily and Zanzibar.
Morocco was once again a stage for glory. This distinction both acknowledges the destination’s quality and serves as an instrument for its promotion. For the Regional Secretary of the Economy, Tourism and Culture, who was representing the region in Morocco, ‘this award acknowledges the excellent work done by al professionals in the sector who, throughout time, have contributed to the make Madeira a tourist destination of excellence’.
The regional secretary finds this award to be an acknowledgment of Madeira, its population, and those who, in the sector, contribute to a notoriety that is stated on a daily basis and at many levels, and based on the will to do ‘always, and especially from now onwards more and better’. And in fact the award may very well turn out to be the crown of glory in a year which everything points to as being the best year ever to Madeira in terms of tourism, the island’s main economic activity.
Out of this, the official entities responsible for promoting Madeira came up with a new slogan: Madeira is gold!
With a centuries-old tradition of tourism, Madeira is a destination which excels for its natural beauties, the hospitality of its people and excellence in the services it provides, be they of accommodation or complementary.
With about 1 million traditional tourists and more than half a million tourists from cruise ships every year, Madeira as a destination keeps on adding to itself and winning national and international acknowledgment which, naturally, reinforces its prestige and notoriety in the market as well as the motivation of all those who commit themselves to it and contribute to make a success out of this tourism-breathing land.
The award does not limit itself to reflecting the quality of the destination. It is also the result of work done throughout the year in social networks and digital platforms as well as through advertising campaigns that help to increase notoriety. One of said examples is that of one of the most famous Madeirans of all time, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo who joined the effort by appealing to his followers in the social media.
