FOR

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WALDORF ASTORIA CHICAGO IS TOP LARGE CITY HOTEL IN U.S. BANGKOK NAMED WORLDS BEST CITY; NEW YORK CITY IS BEST IN AMERICA BORACAY IN PHILIPPINES VOTED BEST ISLAND OVERALL VIRGIN AMERICA RATED NO. 1 DOMESTIC AIRLINE
The Travel + Leisure 2012 Worlds Best Awards Readers Survey Results of Top Hotels, Cities, Islands, Cruise Lines, Airlines, and More Announced Today

New York, NY (July 6, 2012) Osprey at Beaver Creek, Colorado is named Best Resort in the Continental U.S., Honolulu makes its debut on the list of Top 10 Cities in the U.S. and Canada, Nayara Hotel, Spa & Gardens is the first Costa Rican resort to rank among the top 10 hotels overall, and Vieques, Puerto Rico is voted the Best Island in the Caribbean, Bermuda, and the Bahamas in the Travel + Leisure 2012 Worlds Best Awards readers survey, announced today. The results of the 17th annual Travel + Leisure Worlds Best Awards survey revealing readers favorite hotels, cities, islands, cruise lines, airlines, car-rental agencies, spas*, safari outfitters, and tour operators are listed on www.TravelandLeisure.com now, will be featured in the August digital editions on iPad, NOOK Color, and Kindle Fire, and is the cover story of the August issue of the magazine, on newsstands July 20. Singita Grumeti Reserves in northern Tanzania is the top-ranked Worlds Best Hotel overall for the second consecutive year and is one of four properties in Africa to place in the top 10 among hotels worldwide. Australias four-year-old Southern Ocean Lodge, on Kangaroo Island, makes its debut on the Top 100 Hotels list at No. 3. Hotel Santa Caterina, Amalfi, Italy is the top Resort in Europe and is featured on the T+L August issue cover. Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Montana is the No. 1 Inn and Small Lodge in the Continental U.S. for the third year, and is ranked No. 2 among hotels worldwide. New York City holds its title for the twelfth year in a row as the Best City in the U.S. and Canada, and ranks No. 7 among top cities overall, while Bangkok retains its number one ranking in the world for the third year in a row. Istanbul rises to its highest ranking ever in the survey at No. 3 on the list of Top Cities Overall. Among cities in the U.S. and Canada, Chicago rises to the No. 2 spot and New Orleans moves up to No. 5 this year from No. 6 in 2011. Two companies have held onto their No. 1 rankings every year since the poll began in 1996: Crystal Cruises (Best Large-Ship Cruise Line) and Singapore Airlines (Best International Airline). The 2012 results, including the Top 100 Hotels, Top 50 Resorts in the Continental U.S., Top 10 Cities Overall, and Top 10 Islands Overall, among other lists, are featured on www.TravelandLeisure.com/worldsbest now. TRAVEL + LEISURE 2012 WORLDS BEST AWARDS WINNERS OVERALL WORLDS BEST CITY Bangkok WORLDS BEST HOTEL Singita Grumeti Reserves Serengeti National Park, Tanzania WORLDS BEST ISLAND Boracay Philippines WORLDS BEST LARGE-SHIP CRUISE LINE Crystal Cruises WORLDS BEST SMALL-SHIP CRUISE LINE Seabourn WORLDS BEST RIVER CRUISE LINE Viking River Cruises WORLDS BEST INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE Singapore Airlines WORLDS BEST DOMESTIC AIRLINE Virgin America WORLDS BEST SAFARI OUTFITTER Micato Safaris WORLDS BEST TOUR OPERATOR Row Adventures WORLDS BEST CAR-RENTAL AGENCY Hertz WORLDS BEST DESTINATION SPA Red Mountain Resort Ivins, Utah WORLDS BEST HOTEL SPA Capella Pedregal Los Cabos, Mexico

Travel + Leisure Editor-in-Chief Nancy Novogrod said, "Even after 17 years, the opportunity to see what travel experiences resonate with our readers still intrigues and delights me. While some passions change over time, the allure of the exotic and the new remains as strong as ever, as does the attraction to trips that provide distinctive and long-lasting memories. Along with great service, our readers crave adventure and the outdoors, reflected in their selection of this year's top three resorts in the Continental U.S., all located in Colorado mountain towns. And, this year, we're introducing our World's Best Awards Hall of Fame, celebrating the winners who have been recognized for the last ten years or more of the surveycongratulations to all 97 of you!" TRAVEL + LEISURE 2012 WORLDS BEST HOTEL WINNERS BY REGION CONTINENTAL U.S. TOP RESORT Osprey at Beaver Creek Colorado TOP LARGE CITY HOTEL Waldorf Astoria (formerly the Elysian Hotel) Chicago TOP SMALL CITY HOTEL Wentworth Mansion Charleston, South Carolina TOP INN/SMALL LODGE Triple Creek Ranch Darby, Montana HAWAII TOP RESORT Four Seasons Resort Hualalai Hawaii, the Big Island CANADA TOP RESORT Wickaninnish Inn, Tofino, British Columbia TOP CITY HOTEL Auberge Saint-Antoine Quebec City THE CARIBBEAN, BERMUDA, AND THE BAHAMAS TOP RESORT The Reefs Bermuda MEXICO TOP RESORT Live Aqua Cancn TOP CITY HOTEL Four Seasons Hotel Mxico, D.F. Mexico City CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA TOP RESORT Nayara Hotel, Spa & Gardens La Fortuna, Costa Rica TOP CITY HOTEL Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires EUROPE TOP RESORT Hotel Santa Caterina Amalfi, Italy TOP LARGE CITY HOTEL Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at the Bosphorus TOP SMALL CITY HOTEL Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet TOP INN/SMALL COUNTRY HOTEL Katikies Hotel Santorini, Greece ASIA TOP RESORT Oberoi Udaivilas Udaipur, India TOP CITY HOTEL The Peninsula Bangkok AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST TOP LODGE/RESORT Singita Grumeti Reserves Serengeti National Park, Tanzania TOP CITY HOTEL One&Only Cape Town, South Africa AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC TOP RESORT Southern Ocean Lodge Kangaroo Island, Australia TOP CITY HOTEL The Langham Melbourne

 TRAVEL + LEISURE 2012 WORLDS BEST CITY AND ISLAND WINNERS BY REGION REGION CITY ISLAND CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES AND CANADA New York City Vancouver Island B.C., Canada MEXICO AND CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA Cuzco Peru Galpagos Ecuador EUROPE Florence Santorini Greece ASIA Bangkok Boracay Philippines AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC Sydney Great Barrier Reef Australia HAWAII Maui THE CARIBBEAN, BERMUDA, AND THE BAHAMAS Vieques Puerto Rico AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST Cape Town TRAVEL + LEISURE 2012 WORLDS BEST HOTEL SPAS WINNERS BY REGION* CONTINENTAL U.S. Allison Inn & Spa Newberg, Oregon CANADA Fairmont Chateau Whistler HAWAII Grand Wailea Maui MEXICO Capella Pedregal Los Cabos THE CARIBBEAN, BERMUDA, AND THE BAHAMAS Sandy Lane Barbados CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA Nayara Hotel, Spa & Gardens La Fortuna, Costa Rica EUROPE The Ritz Paris ASIA Discovery Shores Boracay, Philippines AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa Cape Town, South Africa AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC Four Seasons Resort Bora-Bora The top winners in each category will be honored at an awards ceremony on Thursday, July 19 hosted by Editor in Chief Nancy Novogrod and VP/Publisher Jean-Paul Kyrillos at the newly opened Conrad New York, recently named to this years Travel + Leisure It List of 50 best new hotels, as selected by T+L editors. Within the T+L 2012 Worlds Best Awards report, there are four different icons to highlight winners with the following attributes: 1) making their debut on the Worlds Best Awards, 2) are a great value (rate of $250 or less), 3) Hall of Fame (listed every year for the past decade), and 4) T+L Find (first featured in the T+L It List or previously featured as a Worlds Best One to Watch). Follow the Travel + Leisure 2012 Worlds Best Awards conversation on Twitter with @travlandleisure #tlworldsbest.
Travel + Leisure 2012 Worlds Best Awards Survey Methodology A questionnaire developed by the editors of Travel + Leisure, in association with ROI Research Inc., was made available to Travel + Leisure readers at tlworldsbest.com from December 1, 2011, to March 31, 2012. Readers were invited to participate through Travel + Leisure magazine (January, February, March, and April issues), T+L iPad editions and newsletters, and online at TravelandLeisure.com. To protect the integrity of the data, after March 31, 2012, respondents were screened by Travel + Leisure and responses from any identified travel-industry professionals who completed the survey were eliminated from the final tally. The survey website, tlworldsbest.com, was maintained, monitored, and kept secure by ROI Research Inc., which collected and tabulated the responses and kept them confidential. The scores are indexed averages of responses concerning applicable characteristics. Respondents were asked to rate hotels, islands, destination spas, and rental-car agencies on five characteristics; cities, cruise lines, and tour operators and safari outfitters on six characteristics; and airlines and hotel spas on four characteristics (see below). In most categories, respondents could also rate additional optional characteristics; these ratings were not included in the final score. For each characteristic, respondents were asked to rate a candidate on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means poor and 5 means excellent. Required component ratings were then averaged, creating an overall score. A minimum number of responses was necessary for a candidate to be eligible for inclusion in the Worlds Best Awards listings. Some companies were rated in both the cruise lines and tour operators and safari outfitters categories, and some properties were rated in both the destination spas and hotel spas categories. In both cases, companies, and properties have different scores for each category. Throughout the Travel + Leisure Worlds Best Awards, scores shown have been rounded to the nearest hundredth of a point; in the event of a true tie, properties, companies, or destinations share the same ranking.

The majority of ships in large-ship cruise lines carry 600 passengers or more; the majority of ships in small-ship cruise lines carry fewer than 600 passengers. Spa results will appear in T+Ls October 2012 issue. These were the categories and characteristics: Hotels: Rooms/facilities, location, service, restaurants/food, value. Cities: Sights, culture/arts, restaurants/food, people, shopping, value. Islands: Natural attractions, activities/sights, restaurants/food, people, value. Cruise lines: Cabins, food, service, itineraries/destinations, activities, value. Tour operators and safari outfitters: Staff/guides, itineraries/destinations, activities, accommodations, food, value. Airlines: Cabin comfort, in-flight service, customer service, value. Rental-car agencies: Vehicle selection, vehicle availability, car-rental location, service, value. Destination spas: Accommodations/ambience, treatments, service, food, value. Hotel spas: Ambience, treatments, service, value.

*Spa results will be featured in the October issue of Travel + Leisure, on newsstands September 21, and on www.TravelandLeisure.com in mid-September. Contact: Liz Marsh / elizabeth.c.marsh@aexp.com / 212 382 5684
# # # With an eye for the authentic, the innovative, and the irresistible, Travel + Leisure (www.travelandleisure.com, @travlandleisure) fuses expert reporting on culture, food, style, and design with stunning photography, transporting readers to the placesand the travel experiencesthat matter now. T+L, the monthly title from American Express Publishing and the long-standing authority in its field, has the largest audience of any travel magazine and is an indispensable guide for global nomads. Travel + Leisure has a network of international editions, including Travel + Leisure Mexico, Travel + Leisure Turkey, Travel + Leisure China, Travel + Leisure South Asia, and Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia.