Every year, El Mensajero Producciones, a publishing house that keeps the Argentine travel industry up to date with developments in the trade at home and abroad, hands out Bitácora (binnacle, or log book) Awards to companies, organisms and institutions in recognition of their effort, creativity and hard work in promoting this growing economic activity. Awards in 23 categories are voted on line by more than 400 travel agents and officials from a list of three candidates for each prepared by the publishing house. Most of the winners of these awards, like the majority of the country’s wholesale and retail travel agencies, specialize in the outbound market.
This month, more than 60 companies and institutions received their respective Gold, Silver or Bronze awards during a big dinner show attended by travel industry people in the Frers Pavilion at the Rural showground. This year’s winner of the Platinum grand prize of the fourth edition of El Mensajero’s Bitácora Awards was Juliá Tours, an Argentine wholesale travel agency that also took Gold in the Website, Mexico, Caribbean, and US & Canada categories. LAN Argentina won the top place in both the domestic (see photo) and international airline categories. Mexico and the Argentine province of Salta were considered to have done the best job of promoting themselves in this country. The Alvear Palace Hotel was voted the best Argentine hotel and the Sheraton the best international chain hotel.Photo credit: On board a LAN jet headed for Puerto Iguazú. Courtesy of Ricardo Marengo.