The 2018
International Toilet Tourism Awards will open to submissions in February 2018,
with winners in six categories to be announced in June 2018.
The opening of the awards will take place in the Southern Highlands Welcome
Centre in Mittagong, NSW, Australia. The public loos at the centre won an award
in 2017 for Best Economic Contributor to the local economy.
In 2018 there will be public toilet award categories for Best Location, Best
Design, Quirkiest Toilet Experience, Best Accessible Toilet, Best Economic
Contributor, and Overall Winner.
"The humble public toilet in a tourism destination drives visitation," says
Bronwyn White, co-founder of MyTravelResearch.com, the organizer of the
toilet awards, which is passionate about good loos in tourism destinations.
"Good toilets encourage people to stay longer and spend more than a penny.
Lets just say they improve an areas bottom line."
Being a toilet tourism award winner can bring recognition to a small business.
"We are still riding the wave of success for being joint winner of Best Design
award in the inaugural Toilet Tourism Awards," says Kathleen Buzzacott,
proprietor of the Art Studio, Alice Springs, central Australia. "It is a
bragging point for us, and visitors always want a tour of the toilets when they
hear our artistic loos won an award!"
Creative, hygienic and functional public conveniences appeal to all users. For
example, good toilet provision is an issue of access for people with
disabilities. Tourists in wheelchairs prefer to know in advance if there are
facilities for them.
While the International Toilet Tourism Awards is a fun initiative to encourage better loos in tourism destinations, MyTravelResearch.com endorses the efforts of the United Nations to provide adequate toilets in poor countries where public health and toilet sanitation are inadequate.
The United Nations holds World Toilet Day on 19 November each year to draw
attention to the fact that 360,000 children under the age of five die annually
due to diarrhoea; 2.3 billion people do not have basic sanitation services at
home; an estimated 600 million people share a toilet or latrine with other
households; and around 892 million people, mostly in rural areas, defecate in
the open.
The implications for disease control, especially among children, and security
for women are real. The UN says 1.8 billion people drink unimproved drinking
water that has no protection from contamination from faeces.
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