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Two individuals have been selected to receive the WTAs first Leading Light Award. The award was launched earlier this year to honor companies or individuals who had successfully launched and implemented a wellness project/initiative that upholds and furthers the principles of the association’s mission, “to shape and support sustainable wellness tourism for the global good.” Chair of the 2021 Leading Light Award Committee, John Nielsen, Board Member and General Manager of Fivelements Retreat in Bali, points out that “While the list of nominees was just 12 in this our inaugural year, the Board was unanimous in selecting these two individuals to be presented with the award.” We’ll be accepting nominations for 2022 later this year.
Refica Attwood
Known locally as “Antigua’s Proudest Treehugger,” Refica Attwood is locally acclaimed for turning the neglected forest she loved and played in as a child into the country’s first community-managed national park, referred to as Wallings Nature Reserve. One of the Nature Reserves’ current initiatives is the Reforestation of Signal Hill Project which will strengthen the island’s conservation efforts with the planting of 600 food-producing trees.
I Nyoman Yastama
I Nyoman Yastama. Spa & Wellness Director at Alba Wellness Valley by Fusion in Hue City, Vietnam, and coordinator with World Wellness Weekend, is shining a light on the path to a wellness tourism culture in the province of Hue. He began working with the local tourism office and Hue University tourism program in 2021 to not only help raise the profile of wellness with the residents of the province, but to also open people’s minds to the concept of wellness travel.
www.wellnesstourismassociation.org
