The winners of the inaugural World Leisure Innovation Prize have been announced at the meeting of the adjudication panel in Hangzhou, China.

The winners are the City of Christchurch, New Zealand for the Southern Centre Multi Sensory facility; the Emmanule Foundation, Calgary, Canada for Playgrounds in Contexts of Extreme Need; the City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia for The Strand…A People’s Place initiative; and the Tourism Science Research Institute in the Zhejiang province in China for its Tourism Planning strategy for the region.

Representatives for all four winners have been invited to Hangzhou to be presented with their awards as part of the gala opening ceremony of the World Leisure Expo on 22 April.

Dr Karla Henderson, chair of the adjudication panel, said: “We were impressed with the variety of entries and the emphasis that applicants placed on building sustainable social and environmental communities trough leisure.”

Founded in 1952, the World Leisure organisation is a non-governmental association which aims to promote leisure as a part of social and cultural development. Details: www.worldleisure.org