Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has accredited Cinnamon Nature Trails, the ecotourism arm of Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts, for their achievements in promoting ecotourism on elephant conservation. They were honoured with this year’s PATA Grand and Gold Awards for the Best Ecotourism Project under the Environment category. The awards ceremony sighted in Langkawi, Malaysia, during the PATA Travel Mart 2018.
Chitral Jayatillake, head of Cinnamon Nature Trails, Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts, stated on the occasion, “It is a great honour to receive a PATA Gold award for the Best Eco-Tourism project focused on elephants. The award is certainly an encouragement and will provide motivation to work more in this feild. It is a matter of pride that we promote responsible tourism in Sri Lanka, and the Cinnamon Elephant Project is one that is extremely significant to us.”
Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, a chain of 13 distinct hotels and resorts, operating in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, has taken an extensive custodianship of the natural wealth. It amazingly hosts over 5000 elephants in their wilds and it is also home to one of the densest populations of leopard at the Yala National Park including 27 cetaceans along with the largest mammal that ever lived on Earth,the blue whale.
The team effectively done the first phase of the project in 2017, where over 70 elephants were identified, named and photo-catalogued and Phase two of the project was activated in early 2018.
Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) founded in 1951, has led from the front as the leading voice and authority on travel and tourism in the Asia Pacific region. Recognizing the excellences in this field, the organization arranges award ceremonies each year and this year the PATA Awards attracted 200 entries from 87 organisations and individuals worldwide. A selected committee of executives from travel, tourism and hospitality sectors form all over the world, chosen the winners.
This year PATA has chosen Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts as winner for its contribution in elephant conservation project. Initiated in 2014, the Cinnamon Elephant Conservation Project is a collaborative effort by Nature Trails and Centre for Conservation and Research with the full financial backing from John Keells Foundation.
Viewed among world’s top 10 natural animal spectacles, the Elephant Gathering of Sri Lanka, is the largest wild gathering of the Asian elephant, that flourishes inside the reservoirs Minneriya and Kaudulla National Parks amid the North Central region of Sri Lanka.
