Based on a worldwide online poll of more than 167,000 travel agencies and front-line travel agents across more than 160 countries, Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) has been named the “World’s Leading Credit Card” by the 2008 World Travel Awards (WTA).
The World Travel Awards honors leading travel-related organizations in worldwide and regional categories, which range from airlines, hotels, beaches and cruise lines to credit cards, car rental companies and hotel reservation services. Visa and other payment brands were evaluated against criteria including scope of distribution, convenience and overall services.
“Visa is honored to be recognized once again by one of tourism’s most prestigious awards programs,” said Vicente Echeveste, Global Travel and Tourism Lead at Visa Inc. “Through our continued partnership with the tourism industry, we’re focused on promoting sustainable growth by delivering payment systems that offer value to travelers, businesses and communities.”
“Visa has been the favored card for international tourism for more than a decade, despite intense competition,” said Graham Cooke, president and founder of the World Travel Awards. “We’re pleased to recognize the consistent and unsurpassed value that Visa delivers to travelers and tourism providers worldwide.”
A longtime supporter of tourism industries throughout the world, Visa offers a network of more than 29 million merchant outlets and 1.6 billion cards in circulation worldwide. As a result of Visa’s strategic partnerships with many global merchants and corporations, Visa cardholders can benefit from extraordinary values on travel and entertainment promotions. For example, Visa.com provides Visa cardholders with retail, travel and entertainment offers from hundreds of merchants in key destination markets or by designated category around the world. These extensive merchant and marketing relationships, as well as Visa’s unsurpassed acceptance around the world, have fostered growth in the retail, travel and entertainment categories.
Visa received this designation last week at the 15th annual WTA ceremony at Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort and Spa, Providenciales in the Caribbean. This is the 11th consecutive year Visa has won this award.