Guludo Beach Lodge (Moz) & Spier (SA) among Conde Nast Traveler's 2011 World Savers Awards Winners

Conde Nast Traveler announced the winners of the magazine's fifth annual World Savers Awards, honoring travel companies from around the world for their leadership in social responsibility in six key areas: education, health, poverty, preservation, wildlife, and "doing it all".
The 2011 World Savers Awards are featured in the September issue, which hits newsstands nationwide (USA) on August 23rd.  World Savers Awards winners will be recognized in an awards ceremony during the 2011 World Savers Congress in Singapore this October

The 2011 World Savers Awards Winners:

• Education: Guludo Beach Lodge
  Located on the white sandy beaches of Mozambique, this hyper-secluded getaway has leveraged upscale travel to change the lives of 15,000 Mozambicans by giving them access to clean water when they never had it before.  They also provide school meals for 800 children, have distributed 9,000 mosquito nets, have built two new primary schools, and have provided 162 secondary school scholarships.
• Health: Accor
• Poverty: Spier
  An elegant farmstead on a wildlife reserve set in South African wine country has created a self-sustaining ecosystem and economy whose guests receive a lesson in wastewater management.  The hotel also pays employees more than 30 percent above what the law requires, with a goal for all workers to afford access to health care as well as education for their families, and enabled 13 previously disenfranchised farmers to rent land directly from the government.
• Preservation: Banyan Tree
• Wildlife: Lindblad Expeditions
• Wildlife: Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa

Overall Winners for "Doing It All," by Industry Category:

• Airline: Lufthansa
• Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises
• City Hotel: Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Small Hotel Chain: Six Senses, Asia
• Tour Operator: Abercrombie & Kent
• Large Resort: Spier, South Africa
• Small Resort: Guludo Beach Lodge, Mozambique
• Large Hotel Chain: Accor

World Savers Awards Methodology: The award winners have to meet exacting standards. The editors chose 53 finalists from 131 applicants. The judges (including academics, CEOs, philanthropists, and Conde Nast Traveler editors) then ranked the applicants in each area of social responsibility: poverty relief, preservation (environmental/cultural), education programs, wildlife conservation, and health initiatives.  The final winner of each award was determined by compiling the judges' rankings.