Sintra, Portugal --The Parques de Sintra picked up the World Travel Award for the “World’s Leading Conservation Company” category for the third consecutive time at the official ceremony held in El Jadida, Morocco.

The World Travel Awards, launched in 1993 to recognize, award and celebrate excellence across  the tourism industry, have gained international recognition as the “Oscars for Tourism” and are awarded annually to the best companies operating in this sector worldwide.  The voting is carried out by the public in general as well as by tourism sector professionals.

The third Parques de Sintra World Travel Award joins the other honours already attributed to the company in recognition of the quality of the work undertaken in recovering and restoring the parks and monuments under its management.

The award was made in Morocco to Manuel Baptista, President of the Parques de Sintra Board of Directors, who affirmed that “winning an award of such prestige and against such strong competition from around the world only further highlights the level of recognition going to the quality of the work carried out by Parques de Sintra within the scope of the conservation and restoration of the parks and monuments under its management”.

Parques de Sintra is an entirely publicly owned company that does not receive any financing either from the state budget or from its shareholders and that maintains, restores and opens the sites under its management to public enjoyment only through recourse to the revenues thereby generated (ticket, cafeteria and store sales and site rental). For the first time, in 2015, Parques de Sintra attained the landmark of a total of over two million visitors.

Parques de Sintra - Monte da Lua, S.A. (PSML) is an entirely state owned company founded in 2000 in order to meet the challenges arising out of the UNESCO classification of the Sintra Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage site. The entity does not resort to the State Budget and the restoration and maintenance of the heritage in its care are ensured by the revenues resulting from sales at its ticket offices, stores, cafeterias and the rental of facilities for the hosting of events.

In 2014, the sites managed by PSML (the Park and National Palace of Pena, the National Palaces of Sintra and Queluz, the Chalet of the Countess of Edla, the Moorish Castle, the Palace and Gardens of Monserrate, the Convent of the Capuchos and the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art) welcomed approximately 1,928,000 visits, around 86% of whom were international in origin. In 2013, 2014 and 2015, PSML was distinguished with the World Travel Award for the “World’s Leading Conservation Company”.

The PSML shareholders are the General Directorate of the Treasury and Finance (representing the Portuguese state), the Portuguese Institute of Nature and Forestry Conservation, the Portuguese Tourism Board and Sintra Municipal Council.

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