Coast adventure company wins top tourism award

Sunshine Coast adventure tourism company Chimu Adventures has celebrated being presented with the Most Outstanding Tour Operator gong at the prestigious AFTA National Travel Industry Awards.

The company, which has offices in Mooloolaba and Sydney, was named one of only five finalists in the prestigious award but was named outright winners at a gala event on Saturday night.

“It’s impossible to put into words what this means to us,” the company’s marketing Marketing Manager Meg Hall said after the win.

“We were up against heavyweight competition, so the significance is not lost on us – being a finalist among this crowd was an honour, to win the award feels like an out of body experience.”

“We’re all wearing grins we cannot wipe from our faces, and I suspect they’ll be there for a very long time.”

The company, which prior to the COVID pandemic organised tours to Latin America and Antarctica, has endured a tumultuous few years due to border closures, which shut down the business virtually overnight.

Ms Hall previously revealed that the award nomination was an emotional achievement in itself, given the difficulties in keeping the business afloat.

The sudden border lockdowns saw many of their clients stranded abroad, requiring all staff to scramble to get them safety home, which required chartering of planes as well as negotiating with foreign governments and militaries to allow the planes to actually take…