The travel industry turns its attention to the Maldives on 27 September 2026 as the World Travel Awards Asia, Oceania & Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony 2026 brings leading names from across the three regions to CROSSROADS Maldives. Now in its 33rd year, World Travel Awards recognises organisations and destinations across aviation, hospitality, tourism, travel services, cruise and visitor experiences. The regional ceremony provides a snapshot of an industry that continues to evolve through new openings, stronger destination identities, more specialised guest experiences and increasing attention to sustainability, design and service. For travellers and the trade, the nominations also provide a useful guide to the companies shaping tourism […]

Kamil Al-Awadhi occupies one of aviation’s most consequential intermediary positions. As the International Air Transport Association’s regional vice president for Africa and the Middle East, he represents airlines across a region of global hubs, fast-growing markets and persistent structural constraints. His task is not to run a carrier but to improve the conditions in which many carriers operate, making the case for regulation, infrastructure and charges that support safe, competitive connectivity.

Christoph Mares did not arrive at Boutique Group to build another collection of luxury hotels. He arrived to help define a new category. The Public Investment Fund-owned company is converting former royal palaces into ultra-luxury hospitality assets, a task that demands commercial discipline, conservation judgement and a service culture capable of making monumental buildings feel personal. Since taking the chief executive role in January 2025, Mares has become the operator charged with turning that ambition into a repeatable guest experience.

JS Anand founded LEVA Hotels in 2019 after more than 25 years in hospitality, including experience with Hilton, Marriott International and other major operators. The first flagship, LEVA Hotel Mazaya Centre in Dubai, established a contemporary, accessible lifestyle proposition. From that base, Anand has expanded through the Middle East, Europe and West Africa. LEVA now operates through four hospitality sub-brands: LEVA Hotel Residences, LEVA, EKONO by LEVA and ZEN by LEVA. The architecture allows Anand to respond to different assets and price points without forcing every owner into one format. It also reflects his central thesis: a smaller operator can move faster, tailor agreements and give owners more direct access to decision-makers.

Muin Serhan became chief executive of Amsa Hospitality in 2024, bringing about 25 years of international hotel experience to a Saudi company founded in 2020. Amsa’s mission is to invest in and manage hotels that support the Kingdom’s tourism growth while preserving cultural identity. By mid-2025, it operated three hotels and had 20 in the pipeline across Saudi Arabia. Serhan’s career with leading hotel groups gave him a grounding in global brand standards and multi-market operations. At Amsa, he applies that experience from the owner’s and operator’s side, where the priorities include project selection, management agreements, pre-opening, talent and long-term asset value. His appointment signalled the company’s move from […]

Carolyn Turnbull became chief executive of Nammos Hotels & Resorts in June 2025, taking responsibility for a brand born from a famous Mykonos beach club and now backed for global growth by ADMO Lifestyle Holding. Her brief is to preserve the energy, social confidence and Mediterranean identity that made Nammos desirable while building the systems, service and owner credibility of an ultra-luxury resort operator. Turnbull brings more than two decades of international experience. Her career has included IHG, Hyatt and Aman, exposing her to different interpretations of luxury and brand scale. Around 2016 she became the inaugural chief executive of Azerai, helping establish a new boutique hotel portfolio in Asia. She later returned to […]

Ralph Porciani became chief executive of JA Resorts & Hotels in 2024 with more than 40 years in luxury hospitality behind him. Roughly a third of that career was spent in leading central London hotels, followed by two decades at Scotland’s Turnberry resort. There he helped guide the property to Forbes Five-Star status, mastering the complexities of a destination combining hotel, golf, food, heritage and international reputation. That experience is well suited to JA, a home-grown Dubai company founded in 1981. The portfolio now comprises nine properties and 1,879 keys across the UAE, Maldives and United Kingdom. It includes the three hotels at JA The Resort in Jebel Ali, JA Ocean View Hotel, JA Hatta Fort Hotel and Indian Ocean […]

Mohamed Awadalla is co-founder and chief executive of TIME Hotels, a UAE-born operator established in 2012. The group has grown to 17 hotels and around 4,000 keys across seven countries, using a portfolio of hotel and apartment brands aimed at market segments often overshadowed by the Gulf’s luxury openings. Awadalla’s hospitality career spans more than 30 years, including experience with Mövenpick, Hilton and Rotana. In 2007 he joined a private investment company in the UAE, where he helped develop a hospitality division before co-founding TIME. The transition from international brands to an entrepreneurial operator gave him both structured training and an owner’s sensitivity to returns.

Ahmad Abu Ghazaleh has led International Wings Group since 2003, building a portfolio that includes Royal Jordanian Air Academy, Arab Wings, Queen Noor Technical College and Gulf Wings. The structure reflects a systems view of aviation: aircraft operations depend on pilots, engineers, training, regulation and specialist services developing together. Arab Wings gives the group an operating presence in business aviation, while the Royal Jordanian Air Academy and Queen Noor Technical College address the sector’s human-capital needs. Gulf Wings extends the footprint into the Gulf. By combining these activities, Abu Ghazaleh can connect education with industry demand and expose trainees to the standards expected by active operators.

Hadi Mouawad has led ExecuJet Middle East since 1999, when Dubai’s private-aviation market was still nascent. The company became the city’s first private aircraft operator and fixed-base service provider, giving Mouawad a pioneering role in the infrastructure that now supports one of the world’s busiest business-aviation destinations. Over more than a quarter century, he has developed operations at Dubai International and Al Maktoum International, providing ground handling, lounges, charter and aircraft management. ExecuJet has been reported to hold about 40 per cent of Dubai’s private-aviation market, serving flights to around 120 destinations. Its managed fleet grew from 18 aircraft to 23 during 2025, a measure of owner […]

Stefan Leser leads Adeera Hospitality with a mandate that is both commercial and national. The Public Investment Fund-owned company is building a Saudi hotel-management platform with home-grown brands designed for different market segments. In a country attracting virtually every major international operator, Adeera’s purpose is to ensure Saudi Arabia also develops its own hospitality intellectual property, operating capability and leadership pipeline.

Adel Al Ali has served as group chief executive of Air Arabia since its establishment in 2003. Over more than two decades, he has led the company from a Sharjah start-up into a multi-hub airline group and one of the region’s defining low-cost carriers. His achievement is not simply growth. It is the creation of a business model that widened access to air travel while maintaining an unusual focus on profitability and cost discipline.

BTN explores how Abu Dhabi is building a global cultural destination from desert heritage, deep history and contemporary art.

The Maldives is preparing to welcome travel and tourism leaders from across the region for the World Travel Awards Asia, Oceania & Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony 2026, powered by Bank of Maldives. The ceremony will take place at CROSSROADS Maldives on Sunday, 27 September 2026, coinciding with World Tourism Day. The evening will bring together leading travel, tourism and hospitality brands from across Asia, Oceania and the Indian Ocean to celebrate excellence across a wide range of categories, including hotels, resorts, airlines, tour operators, destinations and tourism attractions.

The Maldives’ Fari Islands archipelago came alive from 13–15 August as the second edition of the Fari Islands Festival unfolded across Patina Maldives and The Ritz-Carlton Maldives. Guided by its ‘One Festival, Every Sense’ philosophy, the festival welcomed an international community of artists, cultural voices, chefs, musicians, wellness practitioners and conservationists, including headline contributor Rosamund Pike and acclaimed designer Sean Wotherspoon.

On September 27th, UN Tourism celebrates World Tourism Day. In 2026, it will centre on how digitalization and Artificial Intelligence are redesigning tourism. To mark the date, Belvera Partners, a PR firm exclusively focused on supporting B2B travel technology companies, has brought together thought leaders across the travel technology ecosystem to explore the opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities associated with the rapid adoption of technology, in general, and AI, in particular, across hospitality, distribution, and travel experiences.

European visitors to Brazil is experiencing its best January-to-August period in two decades. In the first eight months of 2026, the country recorded 1.28 million tourist arrivals from Europe, a 14.03% increase compared to the same period in 2025.

The China Pavilion at this year’s WTM London will be almost 22% bigger than last year, with the stand configured to combine live cultural experiences, destination discovery and high-value business networking across all the three days of the world’s most influential travel and tourism event, powered by RX Global. The expanded footprint reflects the importance China places on rebuilding international tourism links through WTM London, while deepening cooperation with the UK and wider global travel trade.

Pioneering the next era of personalized hospitality, Accor, a world-leading hospitality group, today announces the full launch of its ALL Concierge. Following a successful pilot phase, this launch constitutes a major development in Accor’s AI strategy and is the first time a hospitality group has undertaken a large-scale roll-out of a fully conversational AI companion. Providing a continuous and intelligent presence across every touchpoint, this next-generation interface is a major evolution in Accor’s approach to guest engagement, from initial travel inspiration through to booking management and in-stay interactions.

Beyond Lithuania’s cities lies a landscape of quiet drama: ancient forests, misty bogs, glacial lakes and dunes shaped by the Baltic winds. Best explored on foot, these wild places offer a different side of Europe — one where you can walk for hours through seemingly untouched landscapes and still be back in town by evening. The Baltic nation is attracting growing international interest with an impressive 74% of visitors. Beyond its historic cities, cultural attractions and increasingly acclaimed food scene, Lithuania offers another compelling reason to visit: an extraordinary variety of accessible natural landscapes and its dynamic seasonality.