Melora Hardin, star of NBC’s smash-hit fly-on-the-wall docu-reality parody ‘The Office’ and Walt Willey of the hugely successful, long-running ABC day-time drama ‘All My Children’ are hosting World Travel Awards North and Central America Ceremony in Orlando.

The top-rated stars will unveil the cr?me de la cr?me of the North American travel industry at World Travel Awards North and Central American Ceremony on Saturday 6 September.

The event, taking place at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, Orlando is in partnership with THETRADESHOW, North America’s largest business industry exhibition which takes place immediately after the ceremony.

The World Travel Awards North and Central American Ceremony premier sponsor is Eurostar, the 186mph high-speed train service linking London with Paris and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel under the sea.

“THETRADESHOW is glad to partner with the World Travel Awards in order to further showcase and create global business connections within the travel community. This partnership will not only expand our reach to travel professionals across the world, but will allow the industry’s key figures to meet and network in the context of celebration, education and business development. The 16 partners of THETRADESHOW are excited to work with the World Travel Awards and foster as many business relationships and opportunities to its members as possible,” said Bill Maloney of THETRADESHOW Management Team.

“We are honoured to be working with two great brand names - Eurostar, one of the most exciting gateways to Europe and THETRADESHOW which has a hugely successful reputation as the most effective business show of its kind in the US”, said Graham E. Cooke, President and Founder of World Travel Awards.

“We share many common strands with THETRADESHOW, offering business networking opportunities as well as being a key source of information to help agents sell more effectively to consumers.

“Increasingly in recent years, we have found that consumers are checking the winners of the World Travel Awards in order to attain reassurance and peace of mind when booking a trip.

“Our overall objective has always been to encourage greater quality and above all, supreme customer experience.”

Up to 250 senior industry management will be attending the presentation including Michael Davies, Head of International Sales, Eurostar; Dr. Robert Billington, president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, Rhode Island; Ross and Trish McTavish founders of Canada’s largest independent travel agents; and Cheryl Hudak President and CEO of ASTA.

Television and film comedian Rodney Laney will provide the evening’s entertainment. Recently, he has completed pilots for Comedy Central, MTV, A&E and also been seen on TV favourites such as Fox News ‘Red Eye’, ‘Bad Boys of Comedy’ and ‘The Late Late Show’ with Craig Ferguson.

More than 100 Central American, 160 North American and 100 Canadian organisations have been nominated in their respective regional categories, including airlines, airports, hotels, car hire, destinations, resorts, spas and travel agencies.

The event is part of World Travel Awards Grand Tour, culminating with the final in December, which this year is being held in Turks & Caicos.

All nominations for the World Travel Awards North American and Central American Ceremony 2008 can be found by logging on to www.worldtravelawards.com.