Oceania Travel Awards 2025

Oceania — Paradise Found

Oceania encompasses some of the world's most spectacular natural landscapes, extraordinary wildlife, and pristine marine environments. From the sun-bleached coral formations of Australia's Great Barrier Reef — one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World — to the geothermal geysers, fiordland wilderness, and Maori cultural heartlands of New Zealand, from the over-water bungalow paradises of French Polynesia to the traditional village ceremonies and turquoise lagoons of Fiji — Oceania delivers travel experiences of breathtaking originality and natural magnificence.

Australia's travel and tourism sector is one of the world's most mature and sophisticated, combining cosmopolitan luxury hotel offerings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth with an extraordinary range of nature-based and outdoor adventure experiences. The Great Barrier Reef, the Red Centre's Uluru, the Kimberley's ancient gorges, Tasmania's wilderness, and the Daintree Rainforest — the world's oldest tropical rainforest — represent just a fraction of the natural assets that make Australia a compelling destination for the world's most adventurous travellers. Australia's food, wine, and culinary tourism offering has earned growing international recognition, with the country's wine regions — the Barossa Valley, Margaret River, and Hunter Valley among them — attracting visitors specifically in search of world-class wine and food experiences.

New Zealand has cultivated a global reputation as one of the world's most extraordinary adventure tourism destinations, with Queenstown functioning as the adventure sports capital of the Southern Hemisphere. But New Zealand's luxury travel offering extends well beyond adrenaline — the country's world-class wine regions in Marlborough, Central Otago, and Hawke's Bay, its extraordinary Maori cultural tourism experiences, its remote luxury lodges in the Fiordland and Northland regions, and its internationally acclaimed fine dining scene combine to create a premium travel proposition that is genuinely world-leading.

The Pacific Islands offer a travel experience defined by extraordinary natural beauty, genuine warmth and hospitality, and an intimacy that the world's larger destinations cannot replicate. Fiji has long been established as the Pacific's premier luxury resort destination, with an offering that ranges from high-end all-inclusive resorts to intimate private island retreats. French Polynesia's Bora Bora remains one of the world's most iconic honeymoon and luxury travel destinations, its emerald volcanic peak rising from a turquoise lagoon that travellers around the world dream of visiting. These destinations collectively represent some of the world's most treasured and distinctive travel experiences.