Swiss Travel Awards

Verda Birinci-Reed is Travel Personality 2018 & Hans Lerch receives the Lifetime Achievement Award

For the fifth time, the best in the travel industry were honored with the Swiss Travel Awards as part of the Swiss Travel Day. In addition to the Travel Personality Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented for the third time. Everyone who is anyone in the Swiss travel industry was present at the glamorous Swiss Travel Awards ceremony. The evening of awards for top achievements in the travel industry took place at Stage One in Zurich Oerlikon and marked the end of Swiss Travel Day. The awards ceremony was hosted by Röbi Koller and organized by TRAVEL INSIDE, the Swiss travel trade magazine.


Verda Birinci-Reed honored with the Travel Personality Award 2018
The Travel Personality Award honors a personality in the Swiss travel industry and was presented for the twelfth time this year. The readers of TRAVEL INSIDE chose their favorites from a selection of ten candidates in an online vote. A jury then selected the Travel Personality of the Year 2018 from a shortlist of five personalities. Verda Birinci-Reed, Member of the Board of DER Touristik Suisse, was delighted when she was presented with the trophy. As a strong woman in the background, the long-standing FTI boss has brought DER Touristik Suisse out of the negative headlines and back on the road to success. The laudatory speech for this year's winner was given by jury president and journalist Katharina Deuber.



Hans Lerch receives Lifetime Achievement Award
This year, for only the third time since TRAVEL INSIDE was founded, an industry personality was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. After Hans Imholz and Urs Bauer, Hans Lerch is now being honored with this award for his extraordinary career and his achievements in and for the travel industry. The most important milestones in brief: around 35 years at Kuoni until 2005, the last six years as CEO and member of the Board of Directors, member of the Board of Directors at Hotelplan from 2009 to 2015, CEO from 2010 to 2012, followed by management and participation in the luxury DMC Abercrombie & Kent. At the end of the year, the 68-year-old would now like to retire from all the executive functions he still holds.